What are you assessing?
Creative assessments are ways for you to assess student learning using creative methods, tools, and processes, as an alternative to traditional papers, exams, and presentations. Since the result is often a creative outcome utilizing media formats that may be outside the instructors expertise, sometimes grading these assignments can feel challenging.
When grading these types of projects, keep in mind that, just as in traditional assessments, you're looking for signals that your goals for the course have been met. Typically, students are using a medium to craft an argument – you want them to show the argument, using the special attributes of the medium effectively to make their argument. For example, if the goal is understanding stereotypes in illustrations, then that is what you look for inside the project.
When assessing, think back to your goals, and use those – rather than making new ones (e.g. about the technology). That said, if one of your goals is technical proficiency, then you should specify what that looks like. For example, if you want to grade on the “quality” of a project, spelling out what you mean is helpful. What you see as a "high quality" video might be different, for example, from what a professional cinematographer would see as "high quality" – clarify the difference can help lower stress for students.
Process Papers
A useful tool for grading creative projects, especially in formats you may be less familiar with, is a process paper. In a process paper, learners articulate their process and the decisions they made.
This is somewhat different from a reflection paper. While part of the benefit is learning through reflection, we want them to reflect on the choices they made, why they made them (both in terms of planning and constraints), and if the achieved desired effects or had other effects. This helps learners solidify the importance of making choices for intentional effect. This helps you grade the project by understanding the choices, thinking, and process of the student – what they aimed to do, what they considered, and why they did what they ended up doing.
For some projects, the grade could even be solely based on the process paper – did the learners effectively explain their choices, the effect they wanted to have, and why they thought they were successful in creating that effect or not? Did they consider all the required elements when making their argument in this medium? Learning these mediums can take time, and for an emerging learner sometimes it is more important they understand how they were thinking and why something didn't work the way they hoped. Other times, you may want to also grade on the effectiveness of the argument in the medium.
Rubrics
Another tool that can help with grading creative projects is having a grading rubric for the project. Rubrics help learners understand what they'll be assessed on and where to focus their energies, as well as helping grade in a consistent manner. You can specify any technical considerations and proficiencies as well as emphasizing the importance of the content, argument, and course learning goals.