Introduction
Writing instructors are integrating new media in a variety of ways in their pedagogy as these forms of composing proliferate in academic, civic and workplace settings. This instruction is meant to prepare students for the multimodal forms of writing they will likely do in upper division coursework and in the workplace. A plethora of scholarship in new media composing attempts to assist teachers implement various forms of new media and multimodal composition practices in the classroom (New London Group, 1996; Selfe, 2004; Selfe and Takayoshi, 2004; Swenson, Young, McGrail, Rozema and Whitlin, 2006; and Wysocki, 2003 to name just a few); these include audio essays, PowerPoint slide shows that integrate audio and Web pages and video products. While much of this scholarship describes various kinds of assignments and activities that one can integrate into their classroom, little of it addresses the challenges of assessing such new forms of composing.
Scholarship that does attempt to address it is often more theoretical, attempting to ascertain an heuristic for assessing any kind of writing product, often drawing on concepts associated with assessing traditional forms of writing. Consequently, while such theorizing is productive in engaging teachers in reflection about how they might think about assessing such products, there are few examples of specific cases of assessment that serve as models or examples of such assessment.
Indeed, a survey of assignments used by composition faculty, conducted by Murray, Sheets, and Williams (2010), found that 16% of respondents were uncomfortable assigning multimodal projects because of concerns about assessment, and over half felt their program did not prepare them adequately to assess multimodal assignments (parag. 16). Scholarship needs to include specific examples of new media assessment to help illustrate approaches to providing students feedback on such projects.
In this Webtext I present information about the assessment of a new media project associated with a second semester composition course at my institution. My institution’s writing program is organized as a tiered program; each course is to be taken in a different year of one’s academic experience; the first tier course is to be taken in the Freshman year, the second tier course in the Sophomore year, and the third tier course in the third year. Further, the writing program at my institution encourages instruction in multimodal, new media composing. While not required of instructors, instructors are invited to integrate new media projects in their courses. In addition to the course being designed as a second tier writing course, the particular section I taught was facilitated through the Web in an eight-week summer session; that is, it was a Web-based course.
While students composed and submitted traditional, print-linguistic essays, one assignment required them to develop a PowerPoint (PPT) slide show that integrated audio. They also were invited to develop a similar slide show for another assignment, but it was not required for that assignment. I describe the pedagogy associated with the assignment and how I approached assessment of it. I offer some guidelines for assessment of new media products in the hope that it can inform a general theory of new media assessment by linking criteria used generally in assessing traditional print-linguistic text and criteria currently used in assessing visual rhetoric.