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OBE in PolyU
 
Designing Assessment System to Meet the Learning Outcome Requirements of the Subject:
The Ways of Seeing
 A.
General information about this sharing

Subject: 

Ways of Seeing
Contributor: Rosanna Li, School of Design
Email: sdrosan@inet.polyu.edu.hk 

 B.
Key OBA features
The approach of the subject is to have students: "Theoretically informed and critical interpretation of visual material will complement practical experience of experimentation and observation." For this, numerous assessment instruments were adopted including Lablog, Mini-Project, Visual book, class presentation, Portfolio, and peer critique. The challenge of teaching this subject is to devise an assessment system and assessment criteria that can be both formative to help students to develop their visual and aesthetic literacy and competency and summative for intelligence fair grading in order to show their learning outcomes.

Based on Eisner's PPR Model (Perception, Production, and Reflection), the learning outcomes are re-categorized into: abilities in visual research, abilities in art production, abilities in reflection, and abilities in communication.

For grading criteria, instead of one set of grading criteria for each assignment, a common set of rubric is created that serve to grade all the assessment assignments in this subject.
 C.
Intended learning outcomes

Abilities in visual research
  1. be able to observe and analyze a variety of thematic materials in relation to representational form, expressive value, social purpose and cultural convention, etc. in the course of developing ideas and insights;
  2. be able to explore and generate visual concepts through hands-on study and experimentation on relevant topics;
  3. be able to develop seeing as a way of knowing and a way of problem solving;
Abilities in art production
  1. be able to employ visual, textual and/or plastic vocabularies to generate ideas and to articulate them in drawings, plastic forms, designs or installation settings, etc.;
  2. be able to organize a "processfolio" that documents his or her critical thinking and learning process and growth for evaluation;
Abilities in reflection
  1. be able to offer creative insights, critical interpretations and reflections on the visual material created by themselves and others;
  2. be able to develop an attitude to interact with others through negotiation;
Abilities in communication
  1. be able to communicate visual concepts and critical perspectives in different forms.
 D.
Design of teaching, assessment, and assessment criteria (if applicable)

Revising learning outcomes: The challenge of this subject is to provide a framework for the seemingly unconnected learning outcomes. For this, the PPR (perception, production, and reflection) model was adopted. The framework provides coherent rationale for connecting all the learning outcomes in the subject, in which both the professional and generic outcomes are included.

Revising the assessment system of the subject: There are numerous assignments for this subject, including Lablog, Mini-Project, Visual book, two class presentations, Portfolio, and peer critique for class presentation. Instead of having each rubric for each assignment, a common rubric is devised that can capture the key learning outcomes for all the assignments, no matter in professional competencies in art research and art production or in generic intellectual skills such as in reflection and communication.

Soliciting the implicit marking criteria: Unlike subjects in natural science, the marking criteria in art works are rather subjective. The challenges for the teacher are: first, to make these professionally subjective marking criteria be known to students; and second, to ensure that these criteria are aligned with the learning outcomes of the subject and the program. For these, in collaboration with staff from the Educational Development Centre, the teacher studied again the student assignments that have been marked by her. The teacher voiced out her comments on each assignment such as the visual books. In documenting and analyzing these comments, the previously implicit criteria are made explicit.

The provision of one holistic rubric provides a common ground for both teacher and students to judge their performance. For instance, peer critique becomes meaningful as students can make use of the common rubrics to comment on peers' performance, no matter in oral presentation or in visual production.
 E.
Evidence of success
The interviews with students show that on the whole students enjoy the learning and teaching processes. Most of them found the exercises and projects challenging and meaningful, and they showed much motivation and keen interest in both practical work and class discussions.

At the beginning of the course, students were confronted with a situation in which most of works produced were "mundane and reserved" (in the students' own words). For most, they quickly grasped the meaning and intention of the exercises followed and began to question their own established ways of seeing and interpretation. For a few, it took them longer to realize their own limitations and showed less willingness to tackle their preconceptions from the start. However, even for these few, they eventually picked up pace and began to recognize with much amusement that they too, could see things from different perspectives.

All in all, students showed much appreciation and valued the objectives of the course which set forth to cultivate an attitude of openness and tolerance of different views and values. As a whole, the intended learning outcomes are largely attained.
 F.
Reflection
 G.
Acknowledgements