Assessment in Graphic Design Learning Experiences

Reflections from the conference paper “Using Assessment to Engage Graphic design Students in their Learning Experience”, Debra Ehmann, Swinburne University of Technology.

This paper generally discusses how the use of assessment in graphic design pedagogy can help create a link between a students engagement in their learning activities and the goals of the learning outcomes of the lecturer.
Ehmann discusses (Biggs 2003) and how he uses the principle of constructive alignment to demonstrate how assessment can improve the relationship between evaluation and learning. She also states that in a constructively aligned teaching environment, “…the focus is on matching all aspects of the curriculum with what students do.”

Debra Ehmann also discusses the importance of the way teachers approach deep learning and that the integration of assessment into learning could bring on a change of interaction into teaching and learning than just a transmission of information.

Although at first I did not feel that this paper had much to do with my research, by the end I realized how much I was wrong. While this was one of the first papers I’ve read on the sue of assessment in graphic design education, I feel that even raising the question of assessment and its implications are important for any educator. One thing that made me reflect on my past curriculum design was how I was trying to push students that enrolled into a deeper learning style, that is I wanted to get the students thinking more about the process in relation the artifact they were creating but I did not think about how assessment could have helped in that goal. By changing the way students are assessed and just the awareness of the criteria could open up some more doors of dialogue between staff and students.

Ehmann focused this paper on a case study done in the UK then brought to Australia. The students were given an assessment book given at the start of the semester. Tho booklet contained project details, learning outcomes, criteria, assessment sheets, deadlines and weighting for each project. The students were also given criteria and models related to the design process. Peer, self and staff assessment was part of the program and students presented reflective exercises. While I have always made it clear to my students what the learning goals were for each project I did not go too much further in the presentation of the learning goals and criteria.

Sometimes, you read some thing and something clicks, &%.!° why did not I think of that before!