The problem:

In a large third-year biomedical science unit, students completed multiple skill-building assessment tasks, which were supported by in-person sessions through the semester. Skill development opportunities are embedded in these tasks to improve scientific communication, team work and critical thinking. But there was a problem... The assessments were seen as largely disconnected from the lecture and workshop content. I had suspected as much, and my suspicions were confirmed through conversations with students. The disconnect between these assessment tasks and the rest of the course was the elephant in the room. It desperately needed some attention.

The solution:

As I set three key goals in my quest to solve this problem:

1. Connection - Increase the connections between the skill-building assessment tasks and the courses content

2. Authenticity - Design tasks where students created authentic artefacts, with value beyond the course

3. Autonomy – Give the students the freedom to choose a topic they are passionate about

The remainder of this post will focus on the podcast assessment I designed as part of the redesigned assessment regime.

The scientific podcast:

The new task required teams of three to create a 20-minute scientific podcast, related to one of the main themes of the course (such as cancer, precision medicine and immunity). The student teams could choose from a curated list of thought-provoking questions (25), or craft their own!

Some of the most popular questions were:

- How does stress during pregnancy impact fetal brain development and mental health later in life?

- What are the pros and cons of chemotherapy versus targeted cancer therapies?

- What are the key drivers of antibiotic resistance, and how can they be controlled?

Autonomy & authenticity

Giving the students so much autonomy with their topic choice was a game changer. Engagement and buy-in was there right from the start. This autonomy allowed the students to develop a sense of ownership, which translated into energy for the task. Multiple students described the podcast as the most engaging assessment they’d done in their whole degree!

Right from the outset, I encouraged the students to treat their podcasts, not just as an assignment, but authentic scientific communication artefact – underlining that their podcasts would have value outside of the course. To drive this message home, I created a real podcast channel, Disease Vs, where 10 (or more) of the best student podcasts would be released (available on platform such as Spotify at Apple Podcasts). Naturally this created some extra buzz for the students when working on their podcasts.

Scaffolding the podcast

To upskill the students to create these authentic podcasts, we provided scaffolding at every step. Each team created detailed podcast plan, where they documented choices regarding engagement devices, narrative structure, and the framing of the introduction, main body and conclusion. These elements were introduced in collaborative in-person sessions, including a podcast pitch and a session where teams gained one-on-one feedback.

Since the podcast was team-based, encouraging authentic teamwork was a must. Earlier in the semester, the students participated in a teamwork skill building session. To put these skills into practice, the teams documented how they collaborated, how they overcame specific challenges and provided a reflection on whether the team had met its goals.

The output

After all the planning recording and editing, the results were fantastic. Each scientific podcast offered accessible, educational and rigorous conversation exploring the key topic, while referencing many relevant primary and secondary resources. Most teams hit on a really nice balance of the broader context related to their topic and the in-depth scientific content.

And the best part is that there are now 11 of the podcasts published on Disease Vs, covering topics from cutting-edge cancer treatments to the ever-growing problem antimicrobial resistance. For anyone who’s interested in an introduction to some of the most exciting areas in biomedicine right now, these podcasts are a must listen. We’ve already had listeners from the USA, France, Sri Lanka & of course Australia!

So, if you’re thinking about how to increase engagement with assessment tasks, consider increasing the autonomy and authenticity of the tasks! It’s certainly helped us get that pesky elephant out of the room…

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