Student Perceptions of University Support for Digital Assessment

Haworth Towler, Learning Development Team - Library Service

Project overview

The Learning Development Team, based in the Library Service, have a sub team concerned with digital capabilities. They have been providing embedded skills teaching for modules that employ a variety of digital assessment outputs, including podcasts, websites, and zines, with other topics planned for the coming year. This research seeks to understand the general starting point of students when it comes to existing digital skill levels, identify suitable and scalable approaches to teaching and learning, and balance the need for authentic and inclusive assessment with any apprehensions students may have around technology usage and access to relevant resources and support.

Key findings

Students began with low levels of experience in the method of assessment, but practical
classroom-based skills teaching led to increases in students’ perceptions of their selfefficacy that were maintained during independent completion of their projects, with the
offer of additional support on hand.

• Students increasingly perceived digitally creative assignments to be supportive of their
development needs from the start of the module to the end, and were hopeful that
using the digital assessment method would be beneficial in terms of achieving their
academic goals for the module.
• Students could see the benefit of using digitally creative techniques for their skills
development and enjoyed the task, and although this translated into a desire to
complete digitally creative assignments in future, this did not translate to intentions to
use in a wider personal or professional context.
• Students were generally interested and motivated to undertake a piece of work that was
different from assessments they’d had previously, but there were worries about being
able to learn to use the technology, understanding the marking criteria and how they
might differ from a written assignment, and being aware of how to do well.
• Students who responded to the survey after submission of the assignment indicated that
they’d enjoyed the creativity, and the sense of achievement felt more than it did after
submitting an essay.

Implications for practice

• Given the general low levels of experience with digitally creative methods of
assessment, implement classroom-based skills teaching or online resources as standard
to provide a grounding for the task that addresses the hidden curriculum concerns of
skills development to alleviate pressure on students for additional independent skills
learning alongside subject content;
• Adapt teaching and learning to place more focus more on why the assessment method
has been implemented and the wider use value of learning to create media;
• Identify opportunities to co-develop rubrics that would provide a consistent
understanding of expectations for media production that account for resource
accessibility, whilst maintaining flexibility in criteria in terms of academic expectations
around formality, language use, etc.

If you want to find out more details about this fellowship or what the next steps were upon completion please read the LITE Snapshot or contact Haworth Towler

Project start date: September 2023