Play at being an assessor
Halfway through February 2006 I showed six of my project students some of last years CDs containing ETD (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) style reports, and asked students to assess them.
They simply had to say what the project was about, what you had to do to use the disc, and comment on what they found. Finally they had to make some form of assessment of the piece. My aim was to get students to realise the importance of a readme.txt file on the CD. Without that information an assessor is up a gum tree.
"What do I do now?" was precisely the unsettling experience I wanted students to feel.
And through that discomfort, realise that care and attention must be paid to this unseen person - the assessor. Giving your assessor a little bit of help would pay dividends.
It was an interesting session and a great time was had by all. But it was not until I read Pritesh Mistry's blog on the event that I realised how deep the lesson had gone.
Nor had I realised how much students had got from the incidental comments and asides. This was apprentice style learning.
Having to articulate their assessment on the piece of work they were looking at was very revealing to both us and the assessing student herself.
They simply had to say what the project was about, what you had to do to use the disc, and comment on what they found. Finally they had to make some form of assessment of the piece. My aim was to get students to realise the importance of a readme.txt file on the CD. Without that information an assessor is up a gum tree.
"What do I do now?" was precisely the unsettling experience I wanted students to feel.
And through that discomfort, realise that care and attention must be paid to this unseen person - the assessor. Giving your assessor a little bit of help would pay dividends.
It was an interesting session and a great time was had by all. But it was not until I read Pritesh Mistry's blog on the event that I realised how deep the lesson had gone.
Nor had I realised how much students had got from the incidental comments and asides. This was apprentice style learning.
Having to articulate their assessment on the piece of work they were looking at was very revealing to both us and the assessing student herself.
posted by Dr Brian Morris at 6:52 am
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