Case Study No. 10 - Video Projects, University of Salford

Elements addressed by study

Special Features:

This module is valued at 40 CATS points and therefore constitutes a major part of students’ final degree award.  Students collaboratively produce a 25 – 35 minute video drama.  The module involves an intensive working process which aims to offer students a realistic experience of professional practice.  Assessment attributes 50% of the grade to process, 25% of which relates to commitment to the project, general attitude and time-management.

Description of Key Aspects:

This is a complicated module in which most students take on more than one role.  Some students take a central role in a single project, as Director, Scriptwriter or Production manager.  Others take on two less demanding roles in two productions.  They can choose to be an actor in one production and a crew member in another, or to take on two crew roles in two productions.

The assignment brief for the project runs to 13 pages and contains a detailed breakdown of each of the different roles students might undertake, both in production and pre-production periods, together with specific assessment criteria for each one. There is thus a very clear definition of each student’s role within the collaborative work and of the skills and abilities demanded of each role. There are also overall criteria which apply to every role and demonstrate the high value accorded to co-operative and interactive skills on a project of this nature.   These generally encompass the three areas of commitment and attitude, technical and performance skills and creative response to the demands of the production.

Module tutors supervise each shoot, attending 5 – 7 days of the pre-production and 3 –5 days of the shoot.  The assignment is assessed through the quality of the final product, a working log book, a reflective self-assessment and an individual viva which takes place after the log books have been submitted.  The finished projects are triple marked and are normally also viewed by the programme External Verifier.

Analysis

In a project of this nature, which has a long generative period (which might last 3 months in total) and an intensive production period where students might be working 16 hours a day for 2 weeks on location outside of the University environment, module tutors feel that it is critical that each student is made clearly aware of their individual role and responsibility towards the production as a whole.  Where the roles are so interdependent, provision needs to be made within the assessment criteria for the fact that one student’s performance might suffer as a result of the failure of another student to fulfil their responsibilities.  The major difficulty for assessors is in evaluating a process of which they can only experience a small part.

The tutors feel that the combination of log book, critical evaluation and viva functions as an effective means of evaluating the collaborative working process and individual reflection.  If a student blames another for problems they have experienced this can be challenged in the viva to gauge whether such problems might be justified or due to a personality clash.  Since the viva occurs after the tutors have read the log books, they can also address issues that have been raised in them and get an idea of how far a student is aware of how they performed in the eyes of others.

Evaluation:

In aiming to simulate professional video production practice, this module gives students as close an experience as possible of the realistic demands of the profession.

The high weighting of process values the collaborative learning experience as well the finished product and enables students to be accredited for ideas that may not have been used in the final product.  This also enables students to be rewarded for  resourceful and creative solutions they may have come up with to solve problems encountered during the process.

Student feedback suggests that they appreciate the tutor’s presence on the shoot so that tutors can observe how the group are collaborating and how they deal with the many problems that can arise in an assignment of this nature.   They also feel that the viva is useful to enable them to discuss the work with the tutor and that it gives them a forum for negotiation in which they can challenge the tutor’s views as well as having to justify their own opinions and ideas.