Individual Practitioner use of the Guidelines
Individual members of staff can make use of the guidelines after designing a new academic assessment task and when beginning to write the instructions. They can also be used to fine-tune existing assignment briefs to enhance their communicate effectiveness.
The guidelines are quite extensive and detailed so cannot be assimilated quickly and subsequently applied to one’s practice. Therefore, to evaluate, edit and develop the communicative effectiveness of one’s brief, a staged approach to exploiting the guidelines is recommended below.
Once the assessment task itself is designed the assignment brief instructions can be developed.
The 10 STAGE, step-by-step process below is recommended to simultaneously design the brief whilst developing expertise in the area through becoming familiar with the guidelines and applying them to practice.
The guidelines are quite extensive and detailed so cannot be assimilated quickly and subsequently applied to one’s practice. Therefore, to evaluate, edit and develop the communicative effectiveness of one’s brief, a staged approach to exploiting the guidelines is recommended below.
Once the assessment task itself is designed the assignment brief instructions can be developed.
The 10 STAGE, step-by-step process below is recommended to simultaneously design the brief whilst developing expertise in the area through becoming familiar with the guidelines and applying them to practice.
STAGE 1: Preparing the Ground
Read through how the guidelines are organised to get a general idea of the sections and sub-sections and what each of these refers to. Check whether your institution has requirements or design guidelines for written assessment instructions. Access several existing assignment briefs, perhaps both from within and outside your discipline, and read these to determine their assessment requirements and expectations. Skim quickly over all the guidelines just to get a slightly better idea of their focus. Using the briefs you have accessed, compare and evaluate the communicative effectiveness of their design features. STAGE 2: Planning the assessment task Plan in note form the assessment task you have designed, identifying and highlighting the core task. Read through the Assignment Task Text Type guidelines sub-section 1A. Check the use of terms in the glossary. Review your notes with these in mind. Read through in detail the Assignment Task Explicitness guidelines sub-section 1B. Check the use of terms in the glossary. Review your notes with these in mind. STAGE 3: Planning the brief List the sections of the brief. Sketch out an initial layout. Read through in detail the Assignment Brief Design Layout guidelines sub-section 2C. Check the use of terms in the glossary. Review your plan with these in mind. List all the key terms you will use. Check you can define these easily yourself and consider potential difficulty for students in interpreting them. Check for use of multiple terms where one would suffice. STAGE 4: Drafting the brief Write a quick first draft of the whole brief. Consider, with the students who will do the task in mind, what they would understand after one or two readings of the brief and what they might still need to seek clarification about. Edit your first draft accordingly. Read through in detail the Assignment Brief Design Language guidelines sub-section 2D. Check the use of terms in the glossary. Edit your draft with these in mind. Leave the draft for a while as this allows a fresh look later. |
STAGE 5: Re-drafting the brief
Identify areas that, if added to the instructions, might increase their effectiveness. It is not only what the brief contains that needs to be evaluated but also what it does not contain. Read through in detail the Assignment Task Explicitness guidelines sub-section 1B again. Re-draft the brief with these in mind. STAGE 6 : Editing the brief Read through in detail the Assignment Brief Design Consistency guidelines sub-section 2E. Review your draft with these in mind. Check, with the help of a colleague preferably from the same discipline, that the assessment task subject requirements have been effectively communicated. Ask a colleague and perhaps a student, preferably from another discipline, to read the brief with the aim of understanding the assessment requirements and expectations and then discuss to compare their interpretations with what you intended to communicate. STAGE 7: Final drafting Read once more through the guidelines sub-sections 1A, 1B, 1C, 2D & 2E considering which you have applied, which do not apply and which you might still have to think about. Write a final draft of the brief. STAGE 8: Proofreading the brief Double-check for consistency in use of terms. Use a grammar and spellchecker. Ask a colleague, preferably not an expert in the field, to proofread. STAGE 9: Enhancing the brief Read through the Assignment Brief Design Enhancement guidelines sub-sections 3F, 3G and 3H. Plan which aspects of enhancement you are going to implement. STAGE 10: Publish and deliver the assignment brief Ensure on-going monitoring and enhancement of the communicative effectiveness of your brief. |