Integrating Assessment and Instruction: Using Student-Generated Grading Criteria to Evaluate Multimodal Digital Projects

In this article, I explore how we can link assessment to instruction and the multimodal composing process by inviting students to generate the grading criteria for new media assignments, and I show how this approach influenced students’ composing and understanding of multimodal texts. I first detail the scaffolding processes I took to help the class learn to construct the evaluative criteria for a digital video project, describing the course curriculum, instructional approaches, and assignments. Then drawing from extended interviews with three learners, I present their perceptions on how the collaborative construction of grading standards affected their learning and comprehension of new media rhetoric. I close with pedagogical recommendations for instructors who teach multimodal digital writing and who seek to integrate the collaborative construction of grading criteria into their classroom.