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This article explores the process of engaging first year Tourism and Events Management students in thinking about visual presentation of information and data using a web publishing platform. This is done through students learning how web publishing platforms work, how to use these and culminates in them becoming publishers on the web. Through this assessment activity, students learn about the affordances and functionality of these platforms, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of these tools.
The assessed component of the ‘Space, Mobilities and the Experience Economy’ module involves students planning and creating a visual report on the webpage publishing platform Adobe Spark. By the end of the module, each student has created a webpage consultancy report that presents an analysis of the visitor economy in a specific destination. Students have eight countries to choose from. For their webpage report, they conduct research into the visitor economy of the selected country and analyse available statistical data in order to evaluate the country’s strengths and weaknesses, and provide suitable recommendations to a destination management client. The results of their research and data analysis are presented in the form of an Adobe Spark webpage report.
Moving with the times from Word Press to Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark has been used on the Year 1 ‘Space, Mobilities and the Experience Economy’ module for International Tourism Management and Events Management students (cohort of over 70 students) for three years. Prior to introducing the at-the-time relatively new web publishing platform Adobe Spark, WordPress was used for two years. However, due to its complexity, students, like the general public, sometimes found WordPress difficult. As more user-friendly easy-to-use tools for web-based visual stories – like Adobe Spark and Microsoft Sway – emerged and became popular with businesses, it was decided to switch to these to mirror these changes and update the module with the changing times. Adobe Spark, as per its market niche, allows users (in this case students) to focus on website content and, compared to earlier-generation tools like WordPress, less time is required for the technical side and website design to achieve impressive visual effects.
Over three years, Adobe Spark has proven to be an excellent tool for this assessment and has affordances beyond essays and reports written on Microsoft Word. It enables students to engage with visual storytelling and modern forms of online reports by presenting their data in a visual way, clearly structuring their argument, embedding images and videos, creating posters and short videos, and uploading diagrams and tables. The tool is supported on the institutional level and integrated within the university’s systems. With some training, the tool becomes relatively easy for students to use and navigate to create impressive results.
Supporting students to succeed
As the assessments for the module are less conventional than the standard written essay or report, students require substantial support from tutors in the process. To support students and scaffold their learning, a webpage creation workshop is provided by staff from the LIBS Marketing Team.
Chris Wardle-Cousins (E-Learning Developer) has offered valuable support over the years, by facilitating a well-received workshop on using Adobe Spark (and WordPress in the past) as well as offering a drop-in session for students who need extra technical support, and being available via email to answer queries. The website creation workshops are recorded using Panopto and recordings are made available to all students to watch and review in their own time as per their needs. The recording is, in particular, useful for those who could not attend or those who want to re-watch the session.
The success of using this tool in assessment would not be possible without the continuous support from Chris Wardle-Cousins, who helped establish the process of using the tool in this module. This year, Sasha Cooper (Marketing Graduate Intern) delivered the workshop and Charlie Lupton (Digital Learning Developer) will be available for a drop-in session.
Looking back and looking forward
Overall, nearly 200 students have created Adobe Spark webpages. A number of outstanding webpages were created which showcase student creativity and evidence their commitment to this module. The overall student performance and engagement in the module has been outstanding. Average student satisfaction for this module is 83.33%, evidencing students’ appreciation of the innovative assessment, the module overall and the support offered by academics and digitally-focussed members of LIBS Marketing Team.