An approach to assessment for learning The Breadcrumb Trail An approach to assessment for learning

The Context: Media Production Department at Bournemouth University 1000+ students on largely vocational programmes Wide range of ability and confidence Very high achieving students at the top end Significant proportion of UG coming from B-Tec Large proportion of WP students, particularly among B- tec cohort

Problem 1: ‘Theory’ unpopular with production-focused students (constitutes around 30% of delivery) Theoretical ‘canon’ in year 1 already familiar to half the cohort and alien to the other half. Limited engagement, particularly with reading and preparation outside taught sessions. Confident students with good ‘study habits’ succeed: their less confident peers do not. Attainment gap increases – and this continues incrementally through the programme

The Theory: ‘Susan and Robert’ - John Biggs – ‘What the Student Does’ Higher Education Research & Development 18 (1), 57-75, 1999 Susan is an active learner, intrinsically motivated to engage; she has good academic habits, and is confident in her ability Robert is passive, needs extrinsic motivators; he lacks academic skills and confidence – and will fall further behind unless these are developed. If we can get Robert to behave more like Susan her may come to share some of her confidence and skills He needs to be explicitly motivated to engage with sustained academic enquiry – needs to be rewarded for engaging in each stage of the process (constructive alignment with added breadcrumbs)

The Practice: ‘Media Scholarship’ – Year 1, Semester 1 Focused on skills not content (high risk strategy!) Portfolio 50% of grade: 10 weekly tasks, graded 1/3/5 Tasks uploaded to VLE group discussion board Reviewed in seminar Criteria: ‘sustained engagement in scholarly enquiry’. No penalty for errors No emotional baggage interfering with constructive feedback

The Outcome Students Less stressed about essays (secure that they had passed) Engaged in genuine research around subjects of interest Understood key principles of research Essays (50% grade) Arguments actually informed by research (not ‘tacked on’) Range of research sources/ competence with search systems Proper use of evidence and citation

And the proof of the pudding Understanding Media (Year 1, Semester 2) in the cohort ‘inherited’ from the new units, the team has noted Better academic skills (research, structure, referencing etc) Better attendance / engagement Better understanding of what is expected Better levels of confidence

Problem 2 BA Media Production – a very broad programme Some students graduating without depth in specialism – despite many opportunities for development Advanced Specialist Skills – Final year unit, Semester 1 Workshop model failing to deliver due to Differing skills bases Lack of purposeful practice ‘Dependency’ culture & fundamental limits of workshop model

The Theory ‘Susan’ and ‘Robert’ have different experiences of HE Research with graduate shows that many students Do not understand the necessity for independent learning Lack confidence and maturity to undertake it Find our delivery structures don’t support it Susan has the confidence to maximise her opportunities for skills development: Robert does not. We need to get Robert to behave like Susan and take responsibility for his own learning (enquiry based learning with added breadcrumbs)

The Practice Advanced Specialist Skills – Flipped Model Individual NLAs (Negotiated Learning Agreements) Weekly group tutorials (skill specific) Students present what they have learned Peers and tutor feedback Rinse and repeat Weekly Grade Criteria: articulation of what has been learned Failures welcome / technical achievement irrelevant

The Outcome Initial trepidation by staff (what is my role?) Initial scepticism by students (why aren’t you teaching me?) Final verdict: Staff: made proper use of the full range of our expertise Students: we have learned more on this unit than any other: you should introduce this method earlier in the programme

Challenges University Regulations (BU regs don’t allow us to grade attendance or participation) Fetishization of grades Keeping it simple and manageable for staff But Both models have been tried without the grading ‘breadcrumb’ dimension It doesn’t work for the reluctant / less confident / less motivated learner