TY - JOUR

T1 - Employing history

T2 - Enhancing ‘employability’ in BA history degrees with recorded video presentation assessments

AU - Collinson, Marc

AU - Wiliam, Mari

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Until recently, British university history departments have rarely made use of assessed recorded video presentations. Inspired by the increased popularity of Online Educational Resources (OERs), it moves away from traditional essays, exams, and oral presentation-centred assessment strategies. This article outlines an intervention undertaken on a first-year cultural history module to incorporate such an assessment and evaluates its effectiveness in promoting greater ‘digital literacy’. Building on the greater availability of more effective submission platforms, and acknowledging increased student tech-literacy, changing skill requirements for history-related career paths and the growing significance of the employability agenda, the article explores how history graduates can be made more ‘employable’. Using a mixture of open questionnaires and a focus group, student experience and interpretation is used to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention from the perspective of its prospective beneficiaries.

AB - Until recently, British university history departments have rarely made use of assessed recorded video presentations. Inspired by the increased popularity of Online Educational Resources (OERs), it moves away from traditional essays, exams, and oral presentation-centred assessment strategies. This article outlines an intervention undertaken on a first-year cultural history module to incorporate such an assessment and evaluates its effectiveness in promoting greater ‘digital literacy’. Building on the greater availability of more effective submission platforms, and acknowledging increased student tech-literacy, changing skill requirements for history-related career paths and the growing significance of the employability agenda, the article explores how history graduates can be made more ‘employable’. Using a mixture of open questionnaires and a focus group, student experience and interpretation is used to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention from the perspective of its prospective beneficiaries.

KW - employability

KW - history

KW - audio-visual

KW - presentations

KW - digital literacy

M3 - Article

VL - 4

SP - 239

EP - 262

JO - Innovative Practice in Higher Education

JF - Innovative Practice in Higher Education

IS - 2

M1 - 8

ER -