Assessment & the Expanded text project
Work Based Learning
As well as using assessment to underline the value of key subject-based skills tutors are also creating units which offer students opportunities to use these subject based skills in their widest application. Several university departments of English now provide units where assessment is by report and writing for real clients. Embedding work based learning within academic study can help students to develop initiative and experience in professional practice. Equally it offers students the opportunity to sample a professional working environment, broadening the range of skills which students acquire.
Writing a report on issues relating to librarianship
The unit provides an introduction to librarianship and aims to introduce students to a subject specific career opportunity in the public sector, to develop initiative and experience in professional practice, to integrate students into a professional working environment and to develop student skills in collaborative work. By the end of the unit students are able to understand the range of activities involved in library and information work, demonstrate practical experience of working in an academic library service, understand career opportunities available in the library and information service and demonstrate an understanding of professional issues through the preparation of an assessed project.
Assessment design: an individual project in the style of
a report (100 per cent)
Sheffield Hallam University level 2, 20 credits
The unit gives English studies students the opportunity to sample the type of work required for a professional qualification in librarianship. The assessment method requires them to undertake an exercise which makes demands that are appropriate for a vocationally orientated unit. The demands are therefore somewhat different from those of the conventional English essay or course assignment.
In consultation with the unit tutor, who is a senior library assistant, students select a topic for research and produce a written assignment in the form of a report. Possible topics for research include: library structures, library finance, information technology strategy, networked information resources, enquiry and reference work, subject work and user education, circulation and inter-library lending, acquisitions, cataloguing and classification, non-book media, production of learning material, copyright.
Writing for real clients
The unit aims to provide students with the opportunity to write for a real client and/or audience. It offers the experience of writing in a real professional context. Students expand the range of writing they experience on the degree and negotiate the work they undertake. By the end of the unit students are able to include their experience of work in a professional context on a curriculum vitae. They write with an increased understanding of audience and purpose, deal with work for professionals often outside the University, negotiate realistic learning packages and plan and meet realistic deadlines, explain their work to others and reflect constructively on the problems and solutions their work involved.
Assessment design: Portfolio of work-in-progress and drafts
including learning diary (100 per cent). Students submit a folder of writing
including the finished texts, drafts, and reflective learning diary.
Sheffield Hallam University level 2, 20 credits
A professional level of reflection is central to the content and assessment of the students' folders. It is also becoming a key strand in more and more units, and in employment. It is however, not self - evident what should go in these diaries - particularly the level of disclosure and the style of record. In attempting to provide such advice the tutor commissioned the students for advice as part of their work. Besides the technical merit/professionalism standard of the 'products', students also have to demonstrate professional attributes such as team working, reliability, detachment when appropriate, and the willingness to learn, especially considering these are less than glamorous kinds of writing tasks. The assessment is done according to agreed and explicit criteria. Principally, students must show a clear awareness of audience and purpose, and the style and format of each piece must be considered and appropriate. Students this year agreed to produce the following:
- accurate minutes of one of the sessions.
- a commissioned re-writing of the formal constitution of a local Voluntary Sector organisation (Sheffield Multi-lingual Support and Translation Service).
- a formal reader's report on two draft documents the tutor is working on ( A Guide to Professional Writing, and Guidelines on Writing Reflective Learning Diaries).
- a critical review of a book recommended on one of the other units, for their peers, to be market tested on their peers.
The unit is relatively new and because of its focus on real writing tasks for real 'clients' or audiences. The unit should be seen in the context of a university-wide commitment to the professional development of our students.
