by Dave Colangelo

See what Chris Ambedkar, Academic and Industry Coordinator and Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Innovation for the Master of Digital Media Program in The Creative School at Ryerson University has to say about the benefits of students making TikToks instead of writing exams.

Some key points from Ambedkar’s video:

• Creative outputs like TikToks and short videos as forms of evaluation engage higher level cognition skills and sidestep the mental health challenges posed to students by memorization and timed assessments
• Creative production tools and platforms are now widely available due to the proliferation of smartphones
• Acts of creativity often involve a social dimension, and sharing and commenting on work amongst peers can be facilitated by the instructor
• Creative assessments work well for virtual and remote learning modalities
• Students have the opportunity to fine tune their presentation and speaking skills outside of a live classroom setting which might discourage or inhibit their participation and development and negatively impact mental health
• They can be a lot of fun to watch for instructors tasked with evaluating submissions!

References

Crawford, P., Lewis, L., Brown, B., & Manning, N. (2013). Creative practice as mutual recovery in mental health. The Mental Health Review, 18(2), 55-64. DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/10.1108/MHRJ-11-2012-0031