{"id":4266,"date":"2018-10-27T23:36:12","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T12:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sydney.edu.au\/education-portfolio\/ei\/teaching@sydney\/?p=4266"},"modified":"2018-10-27T23:36:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T12:36:12","slug":"multimodal-assessment-what-why-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/multimodal-assessment-what-why-and-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Multimodal assessment – what, why and how?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All acts of communication are inevitably ‘multimodal’<\/a>, in that all communication acts are a combination of modes. In written texts, the use of different fonts, styles, colours and other formatting tools are examples of multimodality. In speech, tone of voice, intonation, prosody and non-verbal cues constitute multimodality. But what about digital multimodality? Here we focus on how the use of digital texts, images, sounds, video, and animations can be used by students (and assessed by teachers) to communicate an argument.<\/p>\n

Multimodality is the use of different media to create a single artefact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Decorative<\/p>\n

Why should we encourage our students to use multimodality?<\/h2>\n

A review of the literature reveals three compelling reasons to develop multimodal skills:<\/p>\n

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  1. To keep up with a society that is increasingly digital<\/b> and to ensure that assessment mirrors current and future employment needs outside of higher education<\/a>\u00a0and thus to prepare students for future employment. For some (very few?) careers, the medium of traditional academic writing may suit the needs of the job but, increasingly, we are required to present and persuade diverse audiences and this involves using a variety of media. So to prepare students for future jobs, we need to rethink and renew assessment practices<\/a>. As some have put it<\/a>:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When teaching practices are themselves using multimodality, it would seem odd to revert to traditional essay writing to assess a course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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    1. To be in tune with students\u2019 expectations and literacy practices<\/b>. Our students have grown up with access to screens and devices and will arguably be familiar with consumption<\/em> of digital multimodal artefacts. However, we need to be cautious in our assumptions about students\u2019 ability to be experts in all areas of technology, and we must not assume that they are able to engage critically<\/em> with digital resources. The idea of the \u2018Digital Native<\/a>\u2019\u00a0has been widely criticised and others have challenged<\/a> the simplistic notion that students are all technologically competent. Introducing a multimodal assessment with support and scaffolding will give students the opportunity to explore and expand their digital literacy capabilities, as well as offer more choice in how they engage with assessments.<\/li>\n
    2. To offer choice and flexibility in assessment<\/b>. In recent years there have been calls for more flexibility and student ownership in assessment. There is strong evidence<\/a> to suggest that students are more engaged when they can see future transferability and relevance in assessments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      With digital multimodal assessment, there is arguably the possibility<\/a> of transferal of domain knowledge and an improvement in digital medium skills.<\/p>\n

      How can we encourage multimodality? Challenges and suggested support<\/h2>\n

      There a several areas that we need to pay attention to regarding multimodal assessments:<\/p>\n

      How will it be graded? What are the criteria?<\/h3>\n

      With multimodal assessment come questions of what<\/i> should be assessed. What criteria do we use to assess the quality of the artefact? Do we assess the quality of the multimodality as well as the content and disciplinary understanding? It is important to help students understand what constitutes a good performance<\/a> by providing them with clear goals, criteria and expected standards. This will, of course, also need to be considered in light of the unit and higher learning outcomes<\/a>, as well as graduate qualities<\/a>. In addition, it is important that students are active in the feedback process<\/a>, and that students and teachers become responsible partners<\/a>. There is obviously a great opportunity to incorporate these perspectives into assessment.<\/p>\n

      Suggestions<\/h4>\n