Co-Creating Authentic Assessment with Industry: A Case Study of Tiktok Shop in Digital Marketing Education

Abstract

This reflective practice case study examines the co-design and delivery of an authentic, industry-embedded assessment in a level 7 MSc Digital Marketing Management module. The programme leader and TikTok Shop’s campaign and strategy manager for beauty developed a live brief, assessment expectations and a rubric informed by genuine campaign data. Students analysed campaign performance metrics and used the ‘situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control’ (SOSTAC: Reed, 2014) framework to diagnose performance and develop evidence-based recommendations. The assessment combined authentic organisational data, access to an industry practitioner, a professionally framed task and external review of anonymised work. The account draws on assessment materials, planning records and practitioner reflection to examine design decisions, implementation and lessons for future practice. Routine module-evaluation comments are excluded because students did not consent to their use in publication; they are neither quoted nor analysed. The case suggests that carefully structured university-industry co-design can strengthen assessment authenticity while preserving academic oversight. It offers transferable design principles rather than empirical claims about student attainment, experience or employability outcomes.