Engaging and assessing Sport students through digital storytelling

“For 3 years now I have run an assignment in my 2nd year SPO2002 Sport and Society module which originated as a ‘digital storytelling’ idea for a group project assessment. Students are asked to complete a small scale social research project on a topic related to inequalities in sport. I take them through each ‘stage’ of the research process (we have 7), and every week the seminars become group meetings in which students are asked to make decisions related to each stage. I set up a NILE journal tool for each group, and they are required to write a formal journal entry for each of the 7 weeks where they document and justify (with the aid of appropriate references) the choices they are making in relation to topic, methodology, design etc.

Upon completion of their journal diaries, I ask them to create a 5-10 minute movie documentary which should present their research project using these 7 stages as ‘chapters’ in their movie. I offer 30% of the mark for creative communication of their work, and students have come up with some fantastically original ideas (last year’s highlight was the use of Lego figures to present a group meeting with Emile Durkheim, a famous sociologist).

Attendance for this part of the module is always high, and students often comment that they have never worked harder than on this assignment (a good thing?!), and take a lot of pride in getting their movie just right.”

For more information about this assessment, please contact Dr Jim Lusted, Senior Lecturer in Sports Studies (Jim.Lusted@northampton.ac.uk)

This case study is taken from the Institute of Learning and Teaching’s 2015 publication ‘Outside the Box Assessment and Feedback Practices’, available from the University’s Assessment and Feedback portal.