Originally published in Griffith College’s SU publication, Griffiti, 2006
Yes, it’s all over. Across campus, sighs of relief are being heaved, laptops being turned off and pens put down. Assignment week is over.
If like me, you were involved in Griff FM and had the first two weeks of semester off while devoting your energies to the airwaves, then you, like me, will not have felt assignment week sneaking up on you. It seems like only yesterday we were going out and celebrating the end of exams in January, and yet, here we are with assignment week over, facing the slippery slope to exams in May.
Did anyone else feel a little surprised when all their assignments were handed to them? Personally I was stunned, there just seemed to be much more time last semester in which to get a head start on assignments before landing straight into assignment week. Suddenly, what felt like no time after exams and Griff FM ended, I was facing a pile of assignments that had all arrived together and had to be done within days, if not hours, of one another.
This is the way that Griffith College has operated for years, and yet, when facing the pile of assignment cover sheets, memory sticks and printers that just won’t print, one can’t help but wonder if there is not a better way…
True it is that many colleges are following Griffith’s lead into the semesterised system, but is it the right way to go? Is this system of dumping assignments into students’ laps all at once really the best system that there is? Many other colleges offer continuous assessment as the means for testing student’s capabilities, often with very few, if any, exams at the end of the year.
Why doesn’t Griffith offer this option to students? Why is it that even with subjects that have a more practical dimension like photography still have exams at the end of the year. Do Griffith not think that we are mature enough to handle continuous assessment? Or is it something to do with the fact that we are in a private, fee-paying college. I know I for one resent any accusations made by people outside the college that I am buying my education because I am paying fees, Griffith offered the best course for what I wanted to do, and I did get into other colleges but chose Griffith in the end. But do the powers that be within Griffith have the same view of us? Do they believe that we are buying our education and are not smart enough to handle continuous assessment?
Rathmines College, for example, runs a higher national diploma in Journalism that is accredited by BTEC and is solely awarded on the credits earned through continuous assessment. There is always an assignment on the go, but never too many at once, and no exams at the end of the semester or year is a dream come true for many students who clam up in exams.
That’s all very well and good I hear you say, but what of the student who can’t write an assignment to save their life, but is a genius in exams? Shouldn’t there be a system for them? Well, I have to say that I have never heard of such a person, and if indeed they do exist, I have yet to meet them. But yes, in theory, there should be a system for them too.
The best system seems to be one where the student can decide the method of assessment that suits their needs the best. But who has ever heard of an academic institution that offered that kind of option?
But what do students think? Sorcha Ní Fhalinn of Trinity College believes that in theory the semesterised system that we have in Griffith is easier as we are examined on subjects when they are fresh in our minds, as opposed to at the end of semester three in Trinity. In practice, however, Sorcha thinks “having exams only at the end of the year is easier as you get everything out of the way at once. I have always been able to cram at the last minute so this is not a problem for me”. That said, Sorcha does favour assignments over exams; “I think that assignments are a fairer way of assessing capability, as they give the student time to do a good assignment, and there is just not enough time in exams for this.”
Simon Keating, second year Journalism student in GCD agrees with Sorcha; “When the work is piled on top of us, it’s really hard to understand what needs to be done in each assignment” he says, “but I have to say I prefer assignments because theres less pressure and stress when doing them compared to exams.”
It seems as though the system at Griffith, with semesterised exams and assignments was made to help us, the student, but does it help us, or hinder us? Looking back at assignment week, would we rather have several assignments on the go at once with different deadlines that we could dip in and out of, or would we rather be saddled with a load of assignments at once, have a stress filled couple of weeks then a clear conscience until study week in May? At the end of the day, the decision is not really in our hands. It rests with the decision makers. And until we get our degrees, get out into the big bad world and become those decision makers, things are not going to change.
