Bringing Creativity to Life in Assessments

An advanced topic, Sociology of Blackness (SOCI 401-01), was taught for the first time in the fall term of 2024 by Gbenga Adejare as an in-person class. The course was designed to explore the context of being Black in the social world. There were multiple assessments in the course aimed at reifying concepts, internalization of abstract issues, and bringing out the creativity in students.

Interrogating exclusion through a sociological lens.

The assessment components included three reflection memos, a midterm exam, a reflective exam and a creative project.

The creative project assessment was anchored on Debra Thomson’s book, The Long Road Home – it provided students with the opportunity to create projects that will encapsulate the lived experiences of Black people and their implications for planetary humanism. Submitted projects included photo books, video podcast, animated videos, documentary, and narrated scripts. With the students’ consent, the following are some picks from the projects submitted in the course:

In a nutshell, the course assessment design was rewarding, revealing students' potential to apply their knowledge creatively, and transcending traditional methods of evaluation that often restrict understanding to rigid frameworks.