For this course I gave one written graded assessment, one graphical and one presentation.
For the written graded assessment students had to write a 500 word policy brief (aimed at policy makers). In both I have required them to also submit a tweet to summarise the key message. You could alternatively get them to write a blog (aimed at the general public) or a press release.
For the graphical graded exercise students had to produce an infographic. See here for some examples of students' infographics.
For the main assessment students had to give a 10 minute presentation with slides. I had these videoed and gave the videos to the students; I also used them to grade them. In 2019-20 the Covid-19 pandemic meant that we could not do live presentations. I had the students either video themselves or record themselves in powerpoint over their slides. See below for some examples of students' presentations.
All of the assignments were on topics that I specified. Students could only use references that I give them; this allowed them to focus on the communication aspects and not spend time selecting a good topic or references. Limiting students to a small number of topics means that it is easier to discuss the substantive economics in class. I have chosen the topics to be engaging and involve modern topics in economics that the students will see as relevant, but that also involve some meaty economic concepts.
I used grading forms that I handed out and discussed with students beforehand, so that they were clear on the assessment criteria.
