students as partners program, spring 2020: Chloe martin + Vincent andrisani
This Students as Partners Program (SaPP) project offers a reimagining of COMS 1001: Foundations in Communication and Media Studies, the introductory course in Carleton University's Communication and Media Studies Program. It was developed through a collaboration by second year communication student Chloe Martin and Dr. Vincent Andrisani, a first-year faculty member in the School of Journalism and Communication.
The report identifies four areas of the course that required revision: Teaching Strategies + Techniques, Syllabus Material, Discussion Groups, and most notably, Forms of Assessment. Our work on Teaching Strategies + Techniques, Syllabus Matieral, and Discussion groups can be found in the report, which can be downloaded here in .pdf format. Below is our work on Forms of Assessment, including multimedia assignment samples.
Forms of Assessment
COMS 1001 requires students to complete two major assignments, and both entail a combination of media design and a written submission. However, during our SaPP partnership, we designed a total of three new assignments that can be swapped in and out for each iteration of the course.
Each of these assignments draw directly from course modules and can be repurposed to perform one of two tasks. The first is student exploration of a course-related theme or concept. This approach asks students to creatively communicate to a broad audience a key theme or core concept that emerges in the course readings and/or lecture (see the editor-in-chief and web 1.0/2.0 assignments below).
These assignments simultaneously offer an opportunity for students to engage the Carleton University community. This approach asks students to design a PSA for one of the following: campus events, student groups/clubs, and campus units/resources (see the poster/infographic assignment below). This represents a particularly effective way to introduce first-year students to events, networks, and support systems at Carleton University while encouraging them to become active participants in campus life.
In both cases, these assignments emphasize experiential learning, critical engagement with course content, and the development of rudimentary media production and writing skills.
The Assignments
The “Editor-in-chief assignment”: this version asks students to develop a newspaper editorial that describes a course theme or core concept to a broad audience. Students will design the editorial in Canva (a free online platform) and will have complete creative control within a series of guidelines. The assignment emerges from a course module on media industries and this particular mock-up elaborates the concept of “mass customization”.
A draft of the assignment guidelines is available here.
The “Poster/infographic assignment”: this version asks students to develop a visualization for a campus event, group, or resource of their choice. Students will design it in Canva (a free online platform) and will have complete creative control within a series of guidelines. The assignment is inspired by course modules on visual communication and writing + printing, and its aim is to cultivate student interest and support in university life.
This particular version of the project responds to the opt-out policies implemented in 2019 by the Ontario provincial government (these policies have since been overruled by Carleton University). It builds a case for why students would want to continue funding campus initiatives if they had the choice.
The Charlatan represents an excellent example in this regard since in serves as a hub for campus communication, collaboration, and student creativity.
A draft of the assignment guidelines is available here.
The “Web1.0/2.0 assignment”: this version asks students to communicate the differences between a web 1.0 and web 2.0 web page by developing mock up websites for a character encountered over the semester (a theorist or a notable historical figure). The assignment is inspired by course modules on digital media and social media, and its aim is to get students thinking not only about an individual of their choosing, but about the affordances of each platform (1.0 vs 2.0) while making tangible the history of the internet.
Students will make use of a somewhat dated aesthetic using the tools in Canva (a free online platform) to mock up the home page of the web 1.0 version of the project. The 2.0 version of the project will be developed using Wix and will feature attributes such as social media integration and interactivity.
This particular mock up of the assignment is an example of a personal website Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, may have developed for himself. The image here is an example of a personal website or blog, and this is an example of Gutenberg’s web 2.0 site if he wanted to promote his career today (designed on Wix, a free web design platform).
A draft of the assignment guidelines is available here.
Revised Syllabus
In the spirit of media design, this is a revised version of the course syllabus for COMS 1001. Like the course assignments, it too is developed in infographic format to not only model one of the pedagogical aims of the course, but to simplify a document that can easily get text heavy and cumbersome.
*** thanks to Teaching and Learning Services at Carleton University and all those involved in the Students as Partners Program (SaPP) for supporting this project ***
