This assessment sees students work collaboratively to critically engage with key disciplinary scholarly outputs (books, articles, ethnographies) and produce an oral presentation relevant to the course content. In this way, students become active producers of the overall course content rather than passive recipients of information. This assessment is designed to provide an in-depth knowledge in the field of study, to acquaint students with key disciplinary outputs (in the case of ANTH1030 longform ethnographies), and to overcome problems of audience engagement during peer led oral presentations. In addition to these oral presentations, students are given an A4 sheet of paper on which they must provide peer feedback and/or reflections for two of the presentations by groups other than their own. Students are given flexibility in terms of what form this feedback takes and are encouraged to be creative. For example, feedback could be an image, a comic, a short paragraph, or a list of questions or critical insights. The emphasis is on fostering deep listening and allowing students to engage with presentations in creative ways. The presentation component (in the case of ANTH1030 worth 15% of student's overall grade) is completed and marked collaboratively while the feedback element (10%) is completed and marked individually.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 20-40
- CLASS LEVEL
- Second year
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Medium security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Low time
- GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
- In-depth knowledge in the field(s) studied, Effective communication skills
- CONDITIONS
- Group, Peer-assessed
Advantages
Encourages an engaged, active learning averment and caters to student diversity by providing flexibility in terms of topic and format of feedback element of assessment.
Provides students with an in-depth knowledge in the field of study through deep/critical reading and listening, and improves (oral) communication skills, both key UQ graduate attributes. Transferable to any courses that wish to encourage audience engagement during student presentations, and that seeks to foster critical engagement with core disciplinary modes of communication.
Challenges
Students may be initially anxious about the creative freedom afforded to them in relation to the feedback element of the assessment – provide examples of previous work and clearly articulate what is expected of them.
Tips for implementation
Make sure to have clear and equitable marking criteria for the feedback component regardless of the form of submission.
How it supports academic integrity
Both the presentation and the feedback components of this assessment take place during class time and are therefore identity verified. Additionally, time is dedicated during weekly workshops to work collaboratively with group members, ensuring that preparatory work is also informally observed. This mitigates against the possibility of student's outsourcing their work.
Associate Professor Gerhard Hoffstaedter
g.hoffstaedter@uq.edu.au
Gerhard has a BA in Social Anthropology and Politics/International Relations and an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent at Canterbury and was awarded a PhD in anthropology and sociology from La Trobe University. From 2014-2017 he was an Australian Research Council DECRA research fellow.
He conducts research in development studies, on refugee and immigration policy and spiritual and existential security as well as religion and the state. He is a regular commentator in newspapers, radio and online media on topics of his research.
His first book entitled Modern Muslim Identities: Negotiating Religion and Ethnicity in Malaysia is published by NIAS Press.He is co-editor of a volume on human security and Australian foreign policy published by Allen and Unwin as well as one on Urban refugees: Challenges in Protection, Services and Policy, published by Routledge.
He is a senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also course director for World101x: Anthropology of current world issues, UQs fifth edX massive open online course. The course offers 9 weeks of anthropological episodes with an array of additional resources, including a host of interviews with fellow anthropologists. There is also a curated list of interviews with anthropologists and panels on the youtube and facebook channel. Find out more