#Telfest
Professor Andrew Taylor,Director of Learning and Teaching, Department of Politics
Electronic Management of Assessment
#Telfest
Motivation, rationale, effect• Why? Academic motivation • Selling. Dealing with staff resistance,• Reception. How it’s been viewed by
staff• Impact. Improvements to quality of
student feedback• Key warning: there will be problems• Benefits do outweigh the costs
Why?• Large number of students = large amounts
of assignments = ‘warehousing problem’• Long-running issue over quality/quantity of
feedback (module evaluations, NSS score, anecdotal evidence). Critical factor
• Steady penetration of, and familiarity with, electronic delivery (MOLE, Turnitin). Why not go to the next stage?
• Take control of an inevitable change• More professional
Selling• Extensive discussion in SSCs, L&T, Department.
Involve students and staff from the start• Don’t forget the administrative staff. Critical• Need for in-department technical help and support• Provide everybody with a clear rationale for the
change• Platform (Turnitin) • Run pilots (large and small module)• Discuss outcome of pilots• Training – lots and repeated
Reception• Students carefully briefed and given training.
Masses of material on MOLE• Train staff in groups: mutual learning• Use training to ease any remaining doubts
from staff. No such thing as a stupid question• Remarkably few moans from academic staff• Reduce administrative load/costs eventually• Took one semester to embed; now accepted• Externals very enthusiastic
Impact• Overwhelmingly positive response from students• Overwhelmingly positive response from academic
colleagues, including GTAs (who are critical)• Potential for significant increase in quality control
by module leaders• Improvement in NSS feedback score (causation
not clear but see qualitative responses)• Generally much better quality feedback but still
problem of variation that needs to be addressed• Next task: electronic submission and marking of
UG/PGT dissertations
Things to watch out for• Not all students will get it right the first
time so prepare to be flexible• Be prepared to respond very quickly and
develop workarounds (second marking)• ‘Help Desk’ for staff vital• Don’t try and translate existing system to
electronic version (problem with rubric)• iPad very popular with staff; useful as a
‘sweetener’
Is it worth doing?• Absolutely• Electronic marking is going to be
general to better to start now• Short term costs but long term
benefits• Prepare, prepare, prepare (‘the six
Ps’)