Multimodal assessment and feedback: conference key note

I am really glad to be delivering the opening key note presentation at today's Digital Assessment & Feedback: People, Places & Spaces conference at Lancaster University. I will be talking about Multimodality, Assessment and Feedback. These are the slides that I will be talking around:

Although I have talked and written about multimodal assessment before, I am looking forward to arguing for greater attention towards the multimodal character of feedback and dialogue between student and tutor. When the teacher has an important role in encouraging students to recognise the scholarly validity of the digital multimodal form (Lea & Jones 2011), this can be achieved, I will argue, by presenting our comments, guidance or encouragement in corresponding form. Conversely, if our feedback is primarily conveyed through language (whether spoken or written) we implicitly defer to the power of words, while 'othering' alternative approaches as experimental or risky (and thereby less attractive in the high-stakes summative assessment setting).

Considering the intimate link between assessment and feedback, it is surprising that research investigating the relationship between multimodality and feedback is scarce (useful exceptions being work by Mathisen (2012) and Philips et al. (2016)). Plenty has been written about the possibilities and challenges of multimodal assessment however much less has been said about the way that, by taking a multimodal approach within their feedback, teachers can embolden and inspire students towards the representation of knowledge in ways that are simultaneously scholarly and in-tune with our increasingly digital and visually-mediated world.

Thank you to Kathryn James and colleagues at Lancaster University for inviting me to speak at today's conference.

References:

• Lea, M. R.; Jones, S.. Digital literacies in higher education: exploring textual and technological practice. Studies in Higher Education 2011 36, 377-393. doi.org/10.1080/03075071003664021 (accessed on 21 May 2018)
• ​Mathisen, P. (2012) Video Feedback in Higher Education - A Contribution to Improving the Quality of Written Feedback. Universitetsforlaget, Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 2012 7, 97-116. Available online at: https://www.idunn.no/dk/2012/02/video_feedback_in_higher_education_-_a_contribution_to_impr  (accessed on 21 May 2018)
• Phillips, M; Henderson M.; Ryan, T. Multimodal feedback is not always clearer, more useful or satisfying. In Show Me The Learning. Proceedings of ASCILITE 2016, Adelaide, Australia, 28-30 November 2016. S. Barker; S. Dawson; A. Pardo; C; Colvin (Eds.) pp. 514-522.

​See also:
Multimodality, assessment and language education
Stories of transformative multimodal assessment
​Interweaving: multimodality, assessment and architecture