FROM GUT FEELING TO A STRUCTURED, SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT OF DESIGN COMPETENCIES

In the current work, we introduce a summative method for assessing the whole set of students’ design competencies demonstrated in their final design project when graduating an interactive media design course, and reflect on the use of this assessment method. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods are used; the deployment of the instruments is analyzed in a qualitative manner, and the scores underlying the final grade are analyzed in a quantitative manner using a custom-made visualization tool. Evaluations show that during the deliberation phase, the supervisory team concentrated on the discussion and assessment of the competencies rather than agreeing on a final grade. The visualizations of the scores enabled us to discern major patterns in the grading of our assessment, which in turn fed into adjustments of the assessment procedures as well as the curriculum in general.