This assessment adopts a personalised learning pedagogy in order to develop specific skills, and allow students to follow areas of conceptual or practical interest. Students are given a list of different assessment items, varying in theme, mode of submission, and due date, and are able to pick the choice that most appeals to them. The choice of outputs are either written (such as a reflective essay, critical review or blog post) or audio visual (e.g. short documentary film). In POLS3512 this assessment is administered in conjunction with a practicum in the form of 'MediaLabs' in which students and staff engage in practical, experiential media/technology- driven activities aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of course content. Students must critically and/or reflectively respond to one of these media labs or to one of the broader themes or conceptual frameworks discussed throughout the course. In the case of POLS3512, student assessments are made available to peers through Blackboard and/or dedicated online platforms. These then become useful teaching tools and provide opportunities for peer bench marking. This assessment therefore provides students with opportunities to produce creative, reflective, accessible, yet theoretically rigorous, academic outputs.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 100-500
- CLASS LEVEL
- Third year, Post-graduate
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Medium security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Medium time
- FEATURES
- Online
- TAGS
- multimodal, student negotiated assessment, personalised learning
Advantages
Through offering various options in terms of content, mode of submission, and due date, this assessment caters to student diversity and provides flexibility. This assessment teaches multi-literacies and the ability to communicate effectively across various written and audio-visual outputs, allowing for independence and creativity.
Highly transferable to all courses that wish to provide student flexibility, teach multi-literacies, or that wish to combine deep theoretical thinking with a skills focused delivery mode.
Challenges
Students may be worried that the various modes of submission, topics and due dates may result in an inequitable distribution of grades – be sure to explain that students will be marked according to clear marking criteria regardless of modality.
Tips for implementation
Ensure assessment rubrics and marking criteria for all assessment options are equitable regardless of content/topic, mode of submission, or due date.
How it supports academic integrity
The creative modalities are encouraged in submissions to support a more intimate engagement with course content, which may indirectly deter academic misconduct. Collation and peer-review provisions also encourage accountability in students to, in turn, produce original review provisions also encourage accountability in students to, in turn, produce original works.
Dr Sebastian Kaempf
s.kaempf@uq.edu.au
Dr Sebastian Kaempf is Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the School of Political Science and International Studies.
Dr Kaempf's expertise lies at the intersection between International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies, with specialization in the areas of international security, conflict transformation, ethics and the laws of war, and information technology relating to global politics and violent conflict. Specifically, his research focuses on two areas:
The first concerns the relationship between ethics and the laws of war in the context of the transformation of violent conflict. Here, he is interested in the ways in which historic and contemporary wars - waged under conditions of asymmetry - have impacted on the relationship between the norms of casualty-aversion and civilian protection.
The second area focuses on the role a transforming global media landscape is playing in violent conflicts. Here, his research focuses on how historic and current conflicts are being waged in and through media and information technology, with a particular emphasis on the geopolitics of cyberspace, embedded news reporting, mass surveillance and big data mining, non-state armed groups, and the influence of the Pentagon and CIA in the entertainment sector.
Dr Kaempf received his PhD at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University (UK). He holds a BSc and MSc (Econ) in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
He won the ISA Deborah Gerner Award for Teaching Innovation in 2020. In 2013, he won an Australian national award for teaching excellence (AAUT); in 2012, he won UQ and Faculty awards for teaching excellence. He is also the producer (with UQx and edX.com) and convenor of 'MediaWarX', one of UQ's Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): https://www.edx.org/course/global-media-war-technology-uqx-mediawarx-0
He was a visiting fellow/researcher at UGA in Athens, Georgia, Sao Paulo State University, Humboldt University in Berlin, Sciences Po Lyon, the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, The University of Sydney,and Brown University in Providence, US.
Together with his colleague A/Prof Al Stark, he hosts the podcast 'Higher Ed Heroes': https://www.buzzsprout.com/813707 Find out more