Enhancing communication between academic staff and students to undergraduate degree level with a particular focus on assessment requirements

Abstract

The way that academic staff make their requirements known to students is varied -for students of Art and Design this is usually a written brief, supplemented with averbal briefing. All assessment in Art and Design is by course work in a variety offormats: written, visual, electronic and spoken. There is a tension betweenencouraging original and creative responses and being over prescriptive whenstipulating assessable work requirements. The criteria on which visual work isassessed are often not clear to students and are sometimes perceived as beingsubjective. Ideas about what constitutes quality in visual work can also be confusedleading to a lack of transparency in the assessment process. Additionally, poorcommunication between staff and students may lead to procedural problems aboutsubmission of work, deadlines and so on. This is especially the case when studentnumbers are high. In addition, as funding models alter the traditional staff - studentrelationship moving it closer to a provider - customer relationship, it becomesimperative that expectations and obligations are made clear for all parties. Largequantities of information have to be made available in an accessible and user-friendlyway. Initial information gathering from students indicates that electroniccommunication including e-mail and text messaging would be both popular andappropriate for some types of communication