Visual Learning in Employment Relations: Structure and Meaning

Abstract

There is a need for teaching innovation in industrial relations, which has relied almost exclusively on traditional written forms of assessment. The term 'text' is now defined much more widely to refer to 'multiple forms of communication including information on a digital screen, video, film and other media, oral speech, television, and works of art as well as print material' (Healy, 2000:156). Teaching and learning methods need to incorporate visual forms of communication and assessment to develop students' multiliteracies. This paper explores innovative assessment practices in a first year course in Employment Relations. The paper assesses student posters as a means of communicating understanding. This paper seeks to classify the range of approaches students used to produce their posters. It is through these different approaches to poster making that students demonstrate the structure of their thinking about the meaning of employment relations.