It is well recognised that there are limitations and issues in the use of the UK honours degree classification system (e.g. current grade classifications do not provide sufficient information to distinguish between graduates). The adoption of a single GPA system, as commonly used in many countries, could provide key benefits including a finer granularity ofRead more
The University of Derby are holding a free event funded by the HEA on ‘Innovative approaches to teaching, assessing and feeding back to large Engineering and Computing classes.’ It takes place next week, 21st Feb 2014 at 10am. A programme is available, and bookings can be made online. For further information, visit the HEARead more
Jisc webinar: The changing face of assessment and feedback – how technology can make a difference, 5 December 13.00-14.00 (GMT) Over the past two years, the Jisc Assessment and Feedback programme has worked with over 30 institutions in the UK further and higher education sector to pilot new approaches that address a range of challenges toRead more
There is growing concern about the detrimental effect of term-time employment on university students’ academic success. Richardson et al (2013) report on the results from an online survey of 1837 students of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, whose responses were later matched to their academic records for a semester. They found: TheRead more
Professor Gunter Saunders from the University of Westminster presented ‘Making Assessment Count (MAC)’ in this week’s online eAssessment conference held from the 19th August till the 30th August. The MAC project’s original objective was to help students get more from their marked work and they broke feedback down into the three stage process SOS to do so. Read more
eAssessment Scotland are holding their annual eAssessment themed day event on 23rd August 2013. The day programme looks really good and varied and if the conference was held a little closer to home I would go without hesitation. But, unfortunately for me, it’s not. So I will have to make do with registering for theRead more
It’s the technology that wouldn’t be killed! Three or four years ago, you might have been forgiven for thinking that OMR as a means of delivering / marking assessments was on its way out. After all, surely it would all be done online soon? But in fact, year on year, use of OMR at LoughboroughRead more
Student retention and completion of degree programmes is a topic of growing concern to higher education institutions and their students. A recent paper in Higher Education Research and Development (Suhre et al, 2013) identifies the impact of degree programme characteristics and student motivation on study progress. The setting for the study is the Law Department in aRead more
There is some work going on across the University to establish a Code of Practice on Plagiarism Detection. Therefore, it’s probably timely to refresh our memories on issues surrounding plagiarism through these series of webinars from http://www.plagiarismadvice.org which deal with a range of subjects from identifying plagiarism in student work to case processing. For moreRead more
Formative assessment has been shown to considerably aid learning by providing students with feedback on how their learning is progressing before they engage with ‘high-stakes’ summative assessment. However, a common concern amongst staff (and students) is that it will be an additional burden in an already busy teaching schedule. A recent paper (López-Pastor, Pintor, MurosRead more