A students-as-partners-inspired approach to assessment rubric design

Abstract

The global popularity of the students-as-partners (SaP) model in the higher education sector demonstrates that students, through their lived experiences, have valuable perspectives to contribute to shaping university curricular and co-curricular experiences. While there are numerous inherent benefits associated with facilitating SaP arrangements, incorporating such practices to influence curricular change can be difficult in highly regulated and accredited courses. This article presents a successfully trialled SaP-inspired model involving assessment rubric design in the Bachelor of Laws degree offered at Curtin University in Australia, which is subject to multiple layers of regulation at national and state levels by public and private bodies. The SaP-inspired model presented in the paper is a useful starting point for academics wanting to engage in SaP co-creation of curricular initiatives in contexts that are not especially conducive to SaP, for example, heavily regulated and accredited courses. This article further contributes to existing SaP literature as it presents qualitative and quantitative data collected from the students who engaged in the SaP-inspired model, as well as data collected from students who experienced the SaP-inspired outputs first hand. This article commences with a student reflection on the SaP-inspired model, written by Ryan Kirby who participated in the workshop and assisted in the creation of the assessment rubric and supplementary materials.