A couple of years ago, Rachel Dodds realized not only were students getting bored of doing the same written, structured assignments, but she was getting bored of marking them. When the pandemic required her to rethink her course, she saw an opportunity to introduce a creative solution ̵ video assignments.
In one of her classes, students created videos explaining a key concept in a fun and creative way. They submitted animated videos, skits and recorded presentations.
While more traditional final assignments cause stress and anxiety for many students, the video assignments promoted thinking outside the box. In order to mark these assignments and encourage creativity, she found that she needed to be more creative and lenient in her marking as well. Some submissions were so engaging that she has incorporated elements from students’ work back into her own teaching.
Through this assignment, she also gave them the opportunity to teach her. Rachel found out that this allowed students to analyze and interpret the course material in new ways.
And, she and her students are no longer bored.