Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

I've done a total of seven class publication projects with the Public Knowledge Project, through Digital Publishing in the SFU library. This is both "authentic assessment"--in which students do complex real-world tasks and create a product--and "experiential learning" about editing and academic publishing.

I'm very proud of what the students achieved! ... For instructors thinking of doing a similar project, the later ones were less work for both instructor and students. The first one, in which we created a journal, was WAY TOO MUCH WORK, and I wouldn't advise it unless it's the sum total of the course. By the fourth one, I'd learned to trim the workload, but the class was twice the size and the students were mostly third-year rather than about to graduate, as had been the case in my other publishing projects. The keys to success in my class publishing projects have been choosing smaller upper-level courses, teaching students how to do copyediting (as opposed to giving feedback), and having plenty of in-class time for pair peer editing and proofreading. 

I am particulary pleased about the poetry anthologies from Engl 320 English of the Long Eighteenth Century and Romantic Period. I experimented with the assessment over three iterations. Although they look very much the same in print, by the third version of the course it was almost completely ungraded: I gave students 10% of the final grade, and the rest was self-assessed or marks awarded for getting bits of the revising and editing peer reviews in on time.

The anthology of essays on Queer YA romance novels is actually three courses that got lumped into one volume due to my being behind with the editing due to personal circumstances. However, I love the way each section shows a particular class's interests.