Designing a working model for authentic assessment in a digital media program

This paper presents a pilot study rationale and research methodology on authentic assessment in a Digital Media program. In our previous study of the effectiveness and relevance of authentic assessment in a Mobile Application Development course, we have generated a mixed reaction among the students. The study showed that many students who did an authentic assessment in their study were more motivated to complete and perform well in their studies, with a large percentage of students who took part in the pilot study were happy and felt challenged in working with a real client for their course assessment. On the other hand, about a quarter of students still expressed concern about the authentic assessment, as they felt it was putting pressure on them to perform in an assessmentTherefore, building on this pilot study, as an intervention, we propose a new way to apply an authentic assessment in the digital media program. A multi-faceted method will be introduced in the student’s assessment, where the real client will get involved and give assistance to the student in order for them to understand and see the problem from the client’s point of view. However, to further support this method, the lecturer will then act as a proxy for the real client, providing resources via websites and examples of the expected result of the assessment. Through this multi-faceted approach, we endeavor to provide both the value of a real client together with the support of a discipline experienced academic. The outcome of the proposed implementation of authentic assessment in the course assessment is increase in student acceptance of authentic assessment and motivation to complete the assessment task across the entire student cohort.