Sharing best practice in assessment
Wed, 23 May 2012 11:27:00 BST
Jane Wormald, tutor on the Education and Professional Development BA(Hons) explains how an innovative form of assessment is gaining interest outside the University.
During the first year of the course, students are asked to produce posters as part of their assessment. One enables them to explain how they would complete a research project, the other asks them to analyse the impact of a policy on their workplace.
One of the students is Nina Birdi, who works at Greenhead College. Working in IT support, she has also been asked to teach and as part of that, was offered the opportunity to take part in a meeting discussing the assessment for the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) at the College. Nina recommended using poster presentations, having just positively experienced this as a student. The EPQ involves putting together a portfolio of evidence and presenting it. Currently the College use PowerPoint presentations.
Nina saw how the poster presentation methodology might transfer to the EPQ course at the College, and Jane and Nina have recently presented to the College how it works, from both the student and teacher perspective. The College liked the idea and the Head of EPQ, Carol Hibbert, will be using poster presentations in September.
As Jane says, ‘This is a lovely example of how our courses enable staff and students to share best practice across different types of organisation. Our students have found poster presentations fun and enjoyable; they are student-centred, encourage creativity, use high order skills of analysis and synthesis and build confidence. They also enable students to view others work, helping them gain knowledge, skills and tips from others in a supportive environment. ’
