Visual and Creative Assessments

Visual and creative assessments provide dynamic alternatives to traditional written work, leveraging the power of imagery and synthesis to evaluate deep understanding. These methods appeal to different learning styles and utilize the brain’s capacity to process information visually and verbally, resulting in enhanced retention and communication of complex ideas.

Posters (One-Pagers)

What is it? Posters are typically a one-page document where students use images and words to collectively explain a given topic. The goal is a highly condensed, visual, and analytical summary.

Why is it Effective? SStudents will remember more when they mix language and imagery. It offers a creative alternative to purely written assessments. Finally, students can even engage in poster presentations to show off their product.

How to Implement:

• Set Constraints: Provide a layout or template to give students a roadmap, ensuring they focus on the content and not just the art.

• Elements: Instruct students to include elements like quotations, key themes, images, analysis, and connections to other disciplines or their lives.

• Tools: Students can use digital tools for creating infographics like Venngage, Piktochart, or Canva. They can also create interactive online posters using tools like Thinglink.

• Utilize a Gallery Walk for Peer-to-Peer Learning and Assessment: Implement the one-pagers as part of a gallery walk activity. This strategy gets students to different stations to examine a variety of perspectives. Students can work in pairs or small groups, take notes, and reflect afterward to promote the use of higher-order thinking skills like analysis and synthesis. You can also create a virtual gallery walk by asking students to create short videos or asynchronous poster presentations for their peers via a discussion board.

Tools for Creating Infographics:

• Tools: Venngage, Piktochart, Canva
• Interactive online poster: Thinglink

Resources:

• "20 One-Pager Examples, Plus Advice for Using Them With Your Students" (We Are Teachers)
• "Gallery Walk in Canvas, Strategies, Things to Consider" (Penn State University)

Artistic Representation (Movie Posters, Storyboards)

What is it? Using art forms like drawing, painting, or sculpture to express understanding of a concept. Examples include creating a movie poster for a historical event or a storyboard for a short film scene.

Why is it Effective? Art-based assessments allow students to use creativity to display deep understanding. They provide a unique way for students to synthesize and communicate key ideas and themes.

How to Implement:

• Movie Poster: Create a movie poster that represents a narrative studied in the course (historical events, novel/short story, theory's origin). Require mandatory movie poster genre elements: tag lines, "actor names" (representing key figures), "release dates" (representing key timeframes). The accompanying rubric should assess the accurate application of key course concepts in the visual design and written elements.

• Storyboard: Create a storyboard plan for a short scene in a film. A 30-60 second scene translates to roughly 12-24 panels/frames. Each panel or frame should be one shot of the film. Can be made using software or by-hand and digitized for submission.

Resources:

• "Movie Poster (Preparation, activity steps)" (ReDesign U)
• "Storyboarding as Assessment (tools, tips and tricks, assignment examples)" (GRAV)
• "Self-Evaluation Criteria for a Storyboard Assignment" (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Concept Maps

What is it? Concept maps are visual representations of students' understanding of concepts and the relationships between them, often using nodes and directional lines.

Why is it Effective? Concept maps illustrate students' conceptual knowledge and how well they see the "big picture". They are excellent for diagnostic pre-assessment and formative assessment during learning activities. They also provide immediate visual data on student misconceptions.

How to Implement:

• Scaffolding: Encourage students to practice with familiar concepts as they may not be familiar with concept mapping.

• Specific, Detailed Components for Assessment: Ask students to include specific elements in their maps for grading, such as concepts enclosed in boxes, directional connecting lines (using arrows), and linking words/phrases on the lines that clearly specify the relationship between concepts.

• Synthesis through Interconnectedness and Hierarchy: Evaluate student maps primarily on the interconnectedness of terms and ideas and the organization and accuracy of content, focusing on how well students synthesize the material. Encourage a hierarchical structure that distinguishes concepts and facts at different levels of specificity, and look for multiple cross-links illustrating how ideas across different domains are related.

Examples/Resources:

• "Concept Maps Used to Rehearse & Assess Students Synthesis of Course Content" (MIT)
• "Using Concept Maps (Designing exercise, How to use it)" (Carnegie Mellon University)
• "Concept Maps (Making and using maps, examples)" (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Video Essay / Digital Presentation Recording / Personal Accounts Video

What is it? Video-based assessments leverage video recordings to evaluate a student's knowledge, skills, and abilities. This can range from a digital presentation recording of a student presenting a slide deck to a video essay that combines audio and visual content to convey a single point of view.

Why is it Effective? Video assessments offer an opportunity for valid and authentic assessment. They can replace a traditional essay requirement, and markers have found it more efficient and streamlined to evaluate a student's understanding by reviewing verbal explanations and notes simultaneously.

How to Implement:

• Personal Accounts Video: A type of short documentary that includes interview footage of three or more people who are a generation (20+ years) or more older than the student on a course-relevant topic. Define clear marking criteria and provide ongoing support for any technical challenges.

• Design a Structured Task: Structure the assessment to require students to demonstrate both content mastery and communication skills. For instance, require a two-part video where students first illustrate a complex concept and then explain the technical process or code they used to create the visuals. Emphasize to students that your focus is on their learning progress and the substantive content, rather than video quality.

• Integrate Peer Feedback: Provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback on their work, which can be accomplished by setting up a viewing session (e.g., a "movie night") where peers review and comment on the videos. This acts as a final check before submission and encourages reflection.

Resources:

• "Video Assessments Replace Exams" (MIT)
• "How to do a Video Essay: The Video Essay Process" (Edith Cowan University)