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- Field visit
- An active and experiential learning technique, the field visit involves students learning in a site other than the classroom.
Such sites can be nominated by the course coordinator or, alternately, selected by the student as a creative exercise.
The field visit assessment is an opportunity to enhance comprehension by reinforcing concepts that have already been learned in the classroom, and to provide students with the ability to learn by experiencing instead of just passively listening to information being taught.
The assessment can take the form of a report on the field visit addressing a line of inquiry related to course content.
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- Fieldwork
- Fieldwork consists of practical activities done in a setting outside of the classroom/laboratory. Typically, fieldwork consists of the collection of information in the real world/natural environment.
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- Film review
- A review is a focused piece of scholarly commentary aimed at evaluating and critiquing the content, evidence, arguments and/or conclusions of a specified film. Reviews are assessment opportunities for students to engage with primary sources and experts in their discipline.
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- Formative
- Formative assessments are those conducted during the course rather than at the end of the course. Assessments at the end of the course of study are termed ‘summative assessments’, and assess understanding upon completion of the learning experience. In contrast, formative assessments are conducted during the learning process and enable both the student and the course coordinator to gauge how successfully knowledge is being acquired.
Formative assessments allow course coordinators to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback, as well as to make adjustments to the course to maximise learning.
Formative assessments allow students to gauge how well they are learning and indicate areas that the student may be required to make more effort.
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- Genre writing
- An assessment task in which students are required to write in the style of a selected genre.
Genre writing is primarily designed to teach students to adhere to stylistic requirements.
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- Group work
- Group work assessments encourage students to interact effectively by working cooperatively and productively within a group or team of peers towards a common outcome.
In addition to assessing understand, the benefits of group work include the development of organisational skills and interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation and co-operation.
Group work teaches skills that can enhance student employability.
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- International fieldwork
- Fieldwork conducted in an international setting.
Examples include archaeological field schools.
International field schools can vary in lengths (from 2 to 5 weeks) and assessment deadlines may occur before, during, or after the travel period.
Assessment may include an overall participation mark, fieldwork, journals, on-site presentations, and final research essays.
As this assessment format requires highly motivated, responsible students, student acceptance is ideally based on overall GPA and/or an interview process.
This assessment is well suited to summer semesters as it does not interfere with students’ normal schedules. This assessment requires staff to plan details well in advance.
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- Interpreting
- Students listen to a speaker and are then students are marked on how effectively they convey the meaning of what the speaker said.
Interpreting assessments are most common in language studies but this assessment model could be adapted to any courses which seek to develop skills to effectively communicate orally in response to unfolding stimuli, reinterpreting messages for specific client needs, and liaising with stakeholders to deliver specialised oral (or written) outputs.
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- Interview
- The collection of data by asking people questions.
Students could be asked to interview a research participant or a peer about a specified topic.
There are three different formats of interviews: structured, semi-structured and unstructured.
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- Invigilated
- Observing students complete assessment under strictly controlled conditions to give the assessor a high confidence that the students have completed the assessment themselves. Often a feature of written exams.
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