Track C1 - Digital Stories - Everyone Has a Story to Tell… ‘Assessing Students Using Digital Stories and Bringing Out Their Creativity'

Alex Chapman and Luiza Dantas
Middlesex University, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement (CAPE)

The theme of the session was digital storytelling and how this can be used as an assessment tool. Luiza Dantas introduced the presentation by explaining that stories are universal, used in all cultures and passed down from one generation to the next. We all know how to tell a story so how can we take this capability and use it for reflection and to present our work for assessment?

Using digital technology to add sound, colour and images to a story can bring it to life and make it engaging both for the storyteller and the intended audience. Luiza Dantas showed an example from YouTube of the story of Australian Aboriginal culture – images of the environment, the people and their art and work, backed with Aboriginal music, combined to give a rich and informative overview in a very short time. But though this was interesting and entertaining, we had to get on to the serious business of assessment – how could this be deep and rigorous enough for assessing our students? There were a few in the room who were definitely waiting to be convinced and some doubt was in the air.

The presenters put forward a very convincing argument for the benefits of using this tool. Luiza Dantas pointed out that – on the whole – students hate reflective writing. However, many of them are asked to produce a written reflection for assessment. Why not use a digital story, they asked. It is much more enjoyable for everyone and focuses the student fully on being concise, to the point, engaging, creative and reflective. What about presentations? How many students, particularly international ones, suffer the undue stress of standing up and talking, accompanied by ubiquitous PowerPoint slides? Why not get them to create a digital story instead? The same could be used to replace an Executive Summary; how much more creative and engaging that would be. Another idea was a digital CV. In this digital age, how impressive it would be to receive a digital story about your prospective employee – and you would know that they were equipped with the technological skills that are so important in 21st-century employment. The CV can be part of a person’s LinkedIn profile – the possibilities are endless … (you can tell I enjoyed this session).

Alex Chapman presented some excellent examples of students’ work, from the Business School and from a Mental Health programme. He pointed out (to the doubters in the room) that these assessments generally carry a small percentage of marks and are normally accompanied by a storyboard, and a written reflection as well as the story itself. He indicated the range of areas that could be assessed, including project planning, editing, research, critical analysis, originality, reflection, creativity and more.

Students were asked to feed back on the experience and while most started out as unsure or negative, afterwards they reported that it was exciting, enjoyable and skill enhancing, and they would like to see it used in more modules. A few questions arose, mostly to do with copyright issues and it was agreed that clear guidance should be given at the start of the process as this – like referencing – is all part of developing students’ academic integrity. Luiza Dantas concluded by pointing out that as well as developing all the core skills, digital stories also develop technical, visual and digital literacies – so important for employability. What’s not to like?

Assessing using digital stories from mdxaltc

Report by Celia Cozens, eLearning Content Manager, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement (CAPE)