Case Study No. 9 - Multi-media Theatre, University of Salford

Elements addressed by study

Special Features:

This is an interdisciplinary module in which students develop, and are required to apply, both stage and screen-based creative skills and techniques.   

Students work collaboratively to produce a ‘work-in-progress’ multi-media performance which is assigned a group mark.  This mark is moderated for each individual through supporting documentation and a written appraisal.

Description of Key Aspects:

Assessment for this module includes 3 elements: the presentation of a group-based original multi-media piece; a critical analysis and evaluation of the piece, which analyses and reflects upon contextual and theoretical aspects of multi-media theatre; individual supporting documentation detailing original ideas for additional scenes/sequences for the development and extension of the piece.  Presentation of the documentation can include textual descriptions, column-divided scripts, storyboards or other visual data.

A level of flexibility is applied to the weighting of each of the three elements of assessment since the module aims to assess students’ ability to link theory and practice in creative ways.  The overall mark, therefore, will be an holistic reflection of creative and intellectual achievement.

Analysis

The module demands cross-disciplinary skills but students have differing levels of experience and expertise in terms of operating technical equipment.  Working collaboratively therefore enables the group to draw on the range of expertise available and also to learn new skills from each other.  The group grade encourages students to recognise that ideas they contribute may develop or change as a result of the ways in which they work with others.

Elements 2 and 3 of the assessment offer each student the opportunity to express their personal vision and understanding of the group-devised piece and enable individual students to be rewarded for the quality of their understanding and ideas. 

Students suggesting further creative ideas, which are appropriate within the context of the presentation delivered, are likely to have been fully involved in the generation of the group-based work.

There is also a space for those whose ideas were perhaps not used or who disagreed with the decisions of the group to express their opinions in an analytical context within the evaluation of the piece, so that the assessor is able to reward aspects of intellectual and creative process that were perhaps unseen.

Evaluation:

The assessment strategy reflects the aims of the module to encourage students to apply theoretical understanding to practical experimentation and is therefore designed to reward ideas and creativity alongside critical reflection and contextualisation.

Asking students to suggest ideas for the development of the piece rather than to identify their contributions to what already exists, enables the assessor to distinguish the depth of student engagement with concepts and the originality and creativity of their own ideas.

This example shows one way of extrapolating what levels of cognitive skills have been employed by an individual in the creative process and assessing these specifically.