Bravery, technological literacy and political philosophy: replacing oral presentations with student-created video presentations

Abstract This paper overviews and analyses a project to replace the oral presentation element of a political theory module with a video presentation created by students. Its aim is not to provide a practical guide for the educator but to discuss how video presentations address a number of concerns that students raise about oral presentations. In particular, this paper will focus on the role that bravery has on a student’s journey in education and how video presentations can help by moving the assessment of oral communication from a public to a private act. It will also look at how creating video presentations might stimulate digital literacy and suggest that it is the educator’s rather than the student’s literacy that is challenged by this process.