Diversifying assessment through multimedia creation in a non-technical module: the MAIK project

Creation of multimedia could be a valuable diversification of assessment methods within non-technical modules. The apparent popularity of sites based on user generated video content such as YouTube and also of podcasting suggest that relevant skills and interest are becoming more mainstream. Translating book learnt knowledge into visual forms involves a specific type of intellectual challenge. It seems possible that generating short multimedia presentations will increasingly come to be part of organisational communication, making it an increasingly authentic form of assessment. It could simply be a fun and creative variant of the group presentation. However, there is an entrenched cultural suspicion of the visual as superficial. The “technical skills” involved may give unfair advantage to some students. Any change process is likely to meet resistance and raise novel and unexpected obstacles to its perception as a fair form of assessment. The paper explores these issues and outlines the investigation of them in the MAIK action research project. It discusses in detail justifications for the design of the assessment task in this context, evaluates the success of this structure and reflects on what was learnt from the project about the issues.