On the other hand, Lecturer B chose to give his students two courseworks. He said that by doing so, students had to invest individual time on the given exercises. This is apparent in the following extract from the interview with the lecturer.
Lecturer B: ...they also have two courseworks, they definitely have to spend time on their own.
At the beginning of the semester Lecturer B referred to the courseworks, he described the concept and gave some information to the students. Later in the semester he referred to them again when they were distributed. The excerpt below is from the first lecture.
Lecturer B: Assessment of the module; there will be an exam at the end in January, which will be worth 50% of the total mark. And then there will be two courseworks... You will be given three weeks to do the coursework. The first coursework is to be done individually, and the second can be done in groups of three, no more than three. It can be done individually if you prefer but it’s
advisable to work in groups. Each coursework will be worth 25% of the total module.
The message that Lecturer B wanted to transmit with the use of course- works was that students need to spend individual time, and time with their peers to practice and understand in depth the material taught. He made explicit his expectations and exerted a lot of power over students’ thinking with this message; if students wanted to succeed they had to work on the courseworks in addition to the examination. We cannot say though that the degree of control was at the same level; we notice here an example of mixed framing. The evaluation and the selection of the coursework’s content was defined by the lecturer, therefore the framing was strong and he was the one holding the control over these two components. But the ordering, the way that students would work on the coursework and how they would organize their study, and the pacing, how their time would be shared among the dif- ferent tasks, were not defined by the lecturer. Therefore, in this case the framing was weak and the students had complete control over the ways they would work for the coursework.
Despite the mixed framing by Lecturer B the students received the mes- sage, and talked about it in the focus groups and interviews. Some recognised that by having the content of the course split up in tests and courseworks they could prepare all the topics that the end of semester examination would contain. They were encouraged to work in groups and some of them con- sidered this beneficial. However, on certain occasions this approach caused them difficulties because it was completely different from what they were used to at school.
Alex commented on how having assessment during the semester, in addi- tion to the final examination, was beneficial for examination preparation in
respect of both modules.
Alex: I think it is a great idea the way they have laid it out, because the test that you have in the middle that we have done or the courseworks integrate into what the exam is going to be like and you can feel great about the marks you are getting.
Owen admitted how helpful it was when they were asked to work in groups. By working with peers during the coursework he had the chance to adopt the same way of working for other modules. Moreover, there were students who talked about the differences in the types of assessment between school and university. Eric identified the difference and found it useful.
Eric: I think... the biggest difference [is] between the coursework and A level, so it was kind of cram it all in, do everything I can, whereas here I have a better understanding of what I need to do... However Lesley found the difference troubling. Although she knows that the coursework counts in the overall evaluation of the module she complains. The change in the practice of assessment at university is beyond her expectations and it bothers her.
Lesley: I didn’t expect it to be this much coursework and I am not used to it, ’cause at sixth form we had exams at the end of the year and that was it...
Regardless of the differences in control that the two lecturers exerted through the messages regarding assessment, it seems that students still got influenced in their learning. The message regarding assessment delivered its
and the high degree of control that this had in the two different practices is what made it effective and influential. The students seem to have the belief that assessment is what really counts. This belief exists throughout schooling and pervades their whole educational experience. What prompts the students to take action in furtherance of their learning is not a strongly framed message that the lecturers transmit but the exchange value of the as- sessment. For them it was taken for granted that they would put in effort and work on whatever counts towards their degree. The strong assessment-driven background made them pay more attention to the learning opportunities that would be exchanged for a mark at university.