An alternative to the essay

Adult learning should be experiential and interactive. Altman (2000) states students learn best when they are actively engaged in thought-provoking work. The author of this paper, suggests that without these elements, students produce what they think the lecturer wants, and lecturers, continue to find themselves in a relentless round of marking conventional pieces of work, namely the essay. This paper considers an alternative; a carefully structured series of small units of assessment that culminate in a summative piece of work. This breaks the student's workload up, immediately reflects topics they are exposed to and provides formative feedback. Other benefits are many, but, the variety of assessment tools used ensures assessment is not limited to one modality and can be fun.