A Tool for Formative Assessment and Learning in a Graphics Design Course: Adaptive Comparative Judgement

• Published in: The Design journal Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 73 - 95
• Main Authors: Bartholomew, Scott R., Zhang, Liwei, Garcia Bravo, Esteban, Strimel, Greg J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Routledge 02.01.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: adaptive comparative judgement; CAD; College students; Colleges & universities; Computer aided design; Computer graphics; design assessment; design critique; design graphics; Feedback; Learning; Peer review; Teaching methods
• ISSN: 1460-6925; 1756-3062
• DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2018.1560876

Improving graphics education may begin with understanding best practices for providing, receiving, and improving formative feedback. Challenges related to anonymity, efficiency, and validity in peer critique settings all contribute to a difficult-to-implement process. This research investigates university-level computer graphics students while engaged in adaptive comparative judgement (ACJ), as a formative learning, assessment, and feedback tool, during several open-ended graphics design projects. A control group of students wrote feedback on papers in small group critiques while the experimental group students participated in ACJ, acting as judges of peer work and providing and receiving feedback to, and from, their peers. Relationships between the paper-based group approach and the ACJ approach and student achievement were explored. Further, this paper discusses the potential benefits, and challenges, of using ACJ as a formative assessment and peer feedback tool as well as student impressions of both approaches toward peer formative assessment and feedback.