The Unessay: Diversifying Assessment & Making Space for Creativity and Innovation in a Diverse Student Cohort
Dr Akil N Awan, Department of History
In this teaching initiative, students were given the option of producing an Unessay; a creative alternative to essays that diversified assessment & made space for creativity and innovation in a diverse student cohort. Read more here
Using Snagit to produce formative feedback for the micro-placements scheme
Louise Ogle, Ellen Jarman, Liz Wilkinson, Emma Baker, Jo Edmondson, Careers & Employability Service
Snagit video feedback was shared with 55 students who applied for the micro-placements scheme. This produced a richer output than more closely replicated face-to-face feedback and was an engaging and useful form of careers education for students. Read more here
Mozart’s Operas: History, Performance, Criticism, and Diversity
Dr Mark Berry, Department of Music
This case study shows how a trip to an operatic performance with a BAME cast can be linked to broader course aims and key curriculum themes. Read more here.
Using a field journal in combination with social media to teach field work and species identification skills
Dr Becky Thomas and Professor Julia Koricheva, School of Biological Sciences
Our teaching innovation involves the introduction of a field journal assessment in combination with a Facebook group on a Practical Field Ecology course... Read more here
‘Brands & Branding’ Assessments
Dr. Chloe Preece, School of Management
‘Brands and branding’ involves a group assignment designed to engage students through the use of the fictional character James Bond and an essay that enables students to focus on their future career goals... Read more here
A coursework assessment that fosters independent learning and that rewards creativity
Professor Kathy Rastle, Department of Psychology
In this coursework assessment students were required to construct a conversation between B.F. Skinner and D.Broadbent on any topic in Psychology and in any format. It encouraged independent study and rewarded originality and creativity, requiring them to engage with the material more intensely than is typically the case in our other courses…Read more
here
‘Dragon’s Den’ City Marketing Pitch
Dr Oli Mould, Department of Geography
The assessment method for my half of the ‘Cities: Economies and Societies’ module is based around a business-marketing scenario – in which the students act as city promoters, ‘pitching’ a city to a team of investors, made up of lecturers and external people from the business world (à la Dragon’s Den, the famous BBC programme)…
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here
Diversifying assessment: How Ebay, Mary Portas and TechHub can help improve student engagement in an MSc e-business course
Dr José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón, School of Management
The innovation this year was to enable students to choose their own assignment pathway in order to meet the criteria. Based on their aspirations I proposed four generic assignment topics to students, asking them to suggest others…Read more here
Peer marking and critical evaluation of mathematical writing
Dr Mark Wildon, Department of Mathematics
Mathematics students often have a reasonable idea of how to solve a problem but then struggle to write it down. They may also have an exaggerated idea of how clear their work is to others. This initiative encourages students to think critically about their mathematical writing by peer-marking a question in the fourth year combinatorics course…
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