Assessment digital smarts: Using short text assignment formats for enhancing student learning

Abstract

Lecturers and course designers need to be smart about assignment design. This is particularly so when time constraints of lecturer workload and students’ other commitments impact on teaching and learning coverage of objectives in tertiary courses, By reconsidering assignment formats with a focus on assessment as another opportunity for learning, course designers and lecturers may be able to take advantage of affordances of technology and maximise student engagement with assignments for learning. This study describes some short text assignment types and reports on a case study using a survey of student perceptions of these formats in a third year fully online degree course. Students expressed approval of the variety and opportunities for creativity in these assignments and found them useful for their own learning and for future application in their contexts.