This peer-reviewed conference abstract is the second of three assessment pieces in SWSP1012 - Social Being: Power, Structure and Agency, at the end of which students will be ready to present a paper at a fictitious conference entitled Advancing Human Rights, Social Justice, and Respect for Diversity in Australia Today.

In this assessment students are asked to collect and analyse some basic qualitative and quantitative data from a site of their choosing, and then present their findings. Students are asked to choose a site to collect their data (examples of sites can be provided but they can also be given freedom to choose one that is not listed in the examples). They are then asked to design a research question, collect some basic quantitative data and qualitative data that relates to the themes of the course, conduct some basic analysis (in the case of quantitative typically just some frequencies), link their findings to existing academic literature, and present their findings in their tutorial.

This assessment has students design a multimodal poster including text, images and visual design elements as an inquiry into a topic of disciplinary relevance. This technique has successfully trialled in the School of Education where it functions to introduce pre-service teaches to inquiry-based pedagogical models, but serves all HaSS disciplines.

Developed as an assessment for learning (rather than assessment of learning), this scaffolded task prompts students to consider how social theory is brought to bear through personal narratives. Students use digital platforms (e.g. Pinterest) to create a fictional character profile which becomes a point of reference for progressive tutorial activities.

As a class students are set a collaborative task to produce a creative item relevant to their discipline (e.g. in MUSC3020, an original Album recorded and produced by students) and attend weekly laboratory sessions focused on relevant skill acquisition. This is scaffolded with written reflections where students outline their contribution.

ENGG1600 is a course which embeds research into the undergraduate degree in first year. Assessment is authentic - no exam - instead students work towards a final conference at which they present and for which they have had to write a conference paper (using Nature guidelines).

In small groups students present an article review in dedicated tutorial time. Groups create a Pinterest page in which they collate and curate digital material relevant to their topic. Audience members use Padlet (an online notation tool) to comment on presentations in real time (via personal smartphones) to inform discussion.

This assessment is part of a flipped classroom approach wherein students engage with content before designated class-time and are assessed to gauge formative comprehension. Students write and submit a short critical response to weekly material. These are brought to class and used as prompts for collegiate discussion and progressive improvement.

Students complete their exam papers whilst being invigilated through Zoom focus mode which allows not only a view of the student and their immediate surrounds, but also allows for the student’s screen to be shared with staff.

Designed with an explicit focus on developing writing skills in first year students, this assessment adopts a design approach to a staged writing project. This assessment is divided into several scaffolded tasks that must be completed and submitted cumulatively throughout the semester.