Assessing student‐led seminars through a process of negotiation

Dissatisfaction with the quality of student‐led seminars together with the retrospective recognition by graduates in employment of the role of seminars in developing oral communicative skills have encouraged innovation. The assessment of seminars is seen as necessary to increase students’ motivation and to recognise the high order skills involved in successful seminar leadership. Assessment is arrived at through negotiation with the student against a set of previously agreed criteria. A more flexible assessment scheme has replaced one that proved too rigid. Experience of negotiated assessment has been favourable, although it is too early to evaluate how far skills acquired through seminar leadership are transferable to the workplace.