Case Study 2: Assessing learning and exchanging feedback (A3, V3)
Background
The DPS Programme is a year in industry for students between their second and third year. Our focus is to help students get a placement in industry by helping with their CVs, applications, showreels (or equivalent for their field) and signpost them to opportunities. When they are unable to do this, we work with an Industry Partner and work as a production company on a Live Brief together. Our focus is on experiential learning. The DPS assessment is a 400 word essay, a narrated presentation and a blog.
Evaluation
Having examined the Assignment Brief as part of the Peer and Tutor Review of Practice, I am not convinced of the suitability of the traditional assessment model to the DPS Programme. An Assessment in this form does not exist in industry, and often is an after thought at the end of an incredibly busy and productive year. As staff we switch from our production mindset, back to tutors with a set of traditional criteria to grade against. In addition, the Assessment Brief is a legacy document from another school, which means that it is not designed for the vastly contrasting disciplines of Animation, Games, Film and Sound.
The assessment itself comes towards the end of the year in May. At no point previous to this, is there any other type of assessment or grading. Russell (2010) refers to this type of assessment as ‘high stakes, end of process assessment’. Broadfoot (1996) talks about assessment practices that ‘reflect and reinforce the often conflicting values embodied in education systems’ (p.25, Broadfoot). This directly correlates with the assessment and DPS, where students are effectively in industry and should be graded as if they were at work. For instance, a monthly meeting with a line manager (which would be done by the academic team) and an annual review meeting where we could discuss strengths, challenges and their future goals and how we can meet these goals.
Moving Forwards
Conversely, there are numerous benefits of an academic assessment, including the fact that students are coming back onto a BA course that is likely to include a component of academic writing. It also provides a dataset by which we can evaluate progression in their final year, and provide data on whether doing DPS closes attainment gaps and increases the chances of getting a higher grade within the third year. This data is used to promote the programme. More study would need to be done to analyse whether this was important to students and relevant to the student journey and experience. If this was not a draw, and the experiences of student on placement were more important to students, we could argue that they are not necessary. Assessment should serve the students, and not become a means of ‘academic segregation and tracking,’ (p.105, Abulencia, 2011)
References
Abulencia, Arthur. (2011). The Social Purposes of Learning Assessment. Atikan Journal. 5. 18. 10.56278/tnl.v5i1.62.
Broadfoot, P.M. (1996) Education, Assessment and Society. Buckingham: Open University Press
Russell, M. and Bygate, D. (1970) Assessment for learning: An introduction to the escape project, Assessment for Learning: An introduction to the ESCAPE project. Available at: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/handle/2299/4331 (Accessed: 26 March 2025).
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