Transformative redesign of MSc projects

Our contribution involves sharing our practice and experiences in the complete revision of our approaches to Masters projects. We recognised that there were three main challenges related to our 14-week summer MSc projects: improving staff workload and wellbeing; a skew in assessment that focused primarily on a single, formal, written dissertation and variability of feedback across different markers.

We utilised supervisory pairings to enable moderation of continuous assessment and facilitate staff to take annual leave during the summer, which has become a significant concern for departmental staff. In addition, we diversified assessment, with the introduction of a shorter written "article" and continuous assessment of research project-related skills facilitated by regular students logs throughout the projects to encourage continuous reflexive practice and skills development. Through the introduction of detailed rubrics and clear guidance on feedback we facilitated the development of consistent and constructive feedback for students.

We collected responses from students and staff about these changes and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Both staff and students valued the paired supervisory approach, reflective logs and clarity of evaluation criteria and process. There were some concerns related to the frequency of the reflective logs which led to repetitiveness - in response we have reduced the number from 5 to 3.