What’s the story? Storyboarding and role-play as forms of authentic assessment

Purpose This study explores the integration of storyboarding and role-play, as authentic assessment methods, within a communications programme, to address the narrative of age inequity (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10). Design/methodology/approach This action research considers the experience of 28 postgraduate students of an advertising communications programme at a British university. It synthesises literature on storyboarding, role-play and authentic assessment, and employs a phenomenographic approach to capture variations in students’ responses to a communications brief. Findings The combination of storyboarding and role-play for authentic assessment effectively engages students in fostering creativity, critical thinking, presentation skills and peer-learning, resulting in high levels of participation, engagement and satisfaction. These methods serve as beneficial tools for encouraging students to self-reflect on their lived experiences of real-world challenges and develop self-efficacy, demonstrating variation in creative storyboard approaches to address age inequality (SDG 10) in role-play simulation. Research limitations/implications Future research could consider how role-play and storyboarding, as authentic assessment methods, can address SDG challenges within communications across different student cohorts. Practical implications Drawing on the main findings from embedding storyboarding and role-play as authentic assessment methods, we advocate for six core characteristics that considers authentic assessment by design, utilising relevant real-world challenges to enhance engagement, understanding and competency, application of theory to practice, encouraging research active students, supporting the enhancement of creative freedom, embedding critical thinking and creativity and instilling opportunities for peer-learning and reflection. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study exploring the combination of storyboarding and role-play as an authentic assessment to address the challenge of reduced inequalities (SDG10). The study contributes to the understanding of the pedagogic use of these methods in communication programmes and addresses ageism as a communication and societal problem. It offers characteristics for enhancing programme effectiveness and provides pedagogic guidance on utilising storyboarding and role-play in SDG approaches.