Peer-evaluation and (visual) media: using videos to improve the evaluation know-how of masters’ students

The post-media condition and technologies have assumed a recognized meaning in all pedagogical actions. New Media have an important role in both the teaching and learning phases. For example, innovative methodologies are often based on extensive use of media, images, and audiovisual objects. Currently, it is common to use multimedia to create lessons, to develop surveys on online platforms, and apps to collect data, or to initiate observation activities, as well as to propose smart forms of expression. Besides, the video-research methodology (Goldman, et al. 2009) uses video as a privileged tool for 'field' observations in educational contexts. In some cases, we believe that media and audiovisuals can also be allies in the evaluation phases of a learning or teaching action. In the light of these considerations and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed the teaching and assessment approaches, we have launched an experiment of a peer-evaluation activity. It is based on the use of audio-visual as the main channel for the explication of acquired skills and, at the same time, as a form of commentary and assessment of the skills of others. Our paper aims to present an empirical activity that we are conducting with 65 students of the Business Administration Master, organized by the School of Management of the University of Turin (Italy). Particularly, we focus on the subject area concerning business communication, and public speaking. Students, divided into groups, will have to learn the essentials of competence-based assessment, then design video-objects that highlight the achievement of the goals set by the course of study. The aim is twofold: on the one hand, students acquire the skills useful for evaluating others and themselves (also through theoretical training on Docimology) and try to put into practice what they have learned in the production of the audiovisual product. On the other hand, they also acquire and improve the audio-visual language and the techniques of realizing an effective product from a communicative point of view, as a form of the visual curriculum too.