Comparing Apples with Oranges – Ensuring meaningful assessment across different placement environments
Background
Final year law students undertake a placement for one day per week in semester one, in either an external legal environment or in our SHU ‘Justice Hubs’. 80 students chose to continue their placement into semester two, as part of a 20-credit module, Extended Professional Practice (EPP).
Originally, the EPP assessment was solely reflective – an activity that all students could complete despite the myriad differences in their placement environments. However, whilst reflection is valuable part of professional practice in law, reflection already formed parts of assessments in core 60 credit modules at L5 and L6. We wanted to do something different.
The challenge
We needed to be able to meaningfully and consistently assess 80 students whose placements ranged from global law firms like DLA Piper to in-house clinics focussing on environmental law or gender justice advocacy. EPP is very different to other elective modules at L6 – where all students study and are assessed on the same, prescribed content. EPP students have completely differing experiences.
However, a common factor is that students who chose to take EPP largely do so because of their passion for their placement. To capitalise on this commonality, we wanted to introduce an assessment that:
- Provides space and motivation for students to explore their legal interests and renew their love of the law – whilst providing an element of optionality in assessment topic;
- Assists students with navigating employability – giving them chance to conduct research that could provide personal answers to typical current awareness questions in application processes, such as ‘What recent legal news stories have caught your eye and how are they progressing?’;
- Retains elements of reflection on important professional legal skills.
What we did
We had informal discussions with a group of L6 students and mooted our ideas for a change to the assessment. They showed real enthusiasm for the concept.
We revised the module content – introducing a series of lectures split between practical legal skills (linked to qualification requirements for lawyers, but transferrable to other careers), and snapshots of current legal issues. We drew on our professional practice backgrounds for authenticity (Kushal in legal aid and criminal practice; Gillian in civil and commercial practice).
We designed a broadly worded assessment with the focus being a critical analysis of a specific legal issue inspired by each individual student’s own placement experience.
We retained aspects of reflection – asking students to reflect on practical skills developed during their placement, and how they could build on these skills in their future careers.
Research indicates that optionality and the burden of choice can lead to students feeling overwhelmed. We therefore encouraged students to complete a Google Form with details of their placement and their thoughts on possible assessment topics, which then formed the basis of individual meetings between tutors and students to discuss and support their ideas.
We have been delighted by the variety of issues identified by our students for their assessments. The assessment is enabling students to explore their own interests in law and to improve their employability. We are hopeful that our aims for the assessment will be met.
What’s next?
We are considering more optionality in the assessment for 2026 – 27, offering choice between a viva-style oral assessment or a written submission.
We intend to meet with L6 students after their submission date to gain their opinions on the assessment and its value in their career progression and decisions.
We are considering ways to showcase and disseminate our students’ varied placement experiences – perhaps through a student blog or magazine.
Authors
Gillian Kelly and Kushal Sood, Senior Lecturers in Law, Solicitors in Hallam Legal Advice Centre