Multimodal assessment and like for like feedback: What’s the point?

Abstract

At the University of Greenwich, the postgraduate researcher teaching and learning and assessment course is strand two of five of their postgraduate researcher development program. Since the course began in 2011, the second summative assessment has always called for the submission of a purely written critical reflection. In an effort to design a more inclusive assessment and allow room for greater levels of creativity among the PGR’s when reflecting upon their micro-teach, it was made clear to all PGR’s that as long as their submission appropriately met the assessment criteria they had the choice to submit their critical reflection in whatever mode they thought most suitable. Going even further in an effort to develop a more inclusive assessment, students were informed that the tutor feedback given would be ‘like for like’. Out of 34 submissions, 5 went against the traditional structure of a written assessment. This article reviews the benefits and limitations of multimodal assessment and like for like feedback. Drawing on student responses from the end of course survey, the case study reviews the reasons behind the limited multimodal submissions, and the challenges of forming such an assessment.