In the higher education sector there is an increasing amount of dialogue about involving students in the co-design of learning, teaching and assessment. The idea of students as partners, as having agency in their own learning and assessment experiences is the subject of much interest. There is an evolving body of research that demonstrates students have a valuable role to play and there are significant benefits for the institutions, staff and students. These include but are not limited to, enhanced engagement, higher levels of motivation, more authentic learning and assessment experiences, enhanced student-staff relationships and development of a range of graduate attributes including the ability to make evaluative judgements about the quality of work.
However, with all that we know is positive about students as partners in higher education, and the increasing number of research projects that look at different aspects of this, is much really happening in practice? Whilst many staff are intrigued by the possibilities of co-creation of learning and teaching they perceive or experience challenges experience as they would move beyond and across traditional teacher-student roles.
In this session we will share insights into a study conducted at a higher education provider where students were partners in the development of grading criteria in existing assessment tasks that also led to modification of the actual assessment tasks. The teachers and the students experiences are presented, and a strategy for whole of institution innovation provided.