It's a Two Day Event

Things are starting to pick up speed with the project. We are planning a two day off site event at the university conference venue - the Fielder Centre. The likely date is towards the end of July - once all the exam boards are out of the way. The aim of the event is to give the nine module teams that we are working with the time and space to critically examine their assessment and feedback practices. And also then to start the reengineering process. We are planing ( at this early stage)the two days to be a mixture of presentations , facilitated workshops and module team meetings. The module teams will be able to call on the resources of BLU and the LTI to examine the particular pedagogical and technological aspects of possible assessment scenarios. In particular we are calling on our experts in curriculum design and change management.

By the end of this week all the module coordinators will have had appreciative enquiry reflective interviews in order to build up case studies of how the module is delivered and assessed . These case studies along with data from the student assessment surveys that we are carrying out, will give us a really clear picture of the issues surrounding each particular module. They will become the jumpimg off point for the reengineering process .

What if ?................

It has been another busy couple of weeks.The reflective interviews are continuing with the module coordinators and module teams from the four Business School modules that we are working with. As I transcribe these interviews the passion that the lecturers have for their subject shines through. I suspect as long as the passion is there any problems can be overcome. I have had a positive reception from every one in the schools I have been working with and people are keen to share what they feel the issues are and how they (and we!) can work towards a improving the student engagement and attainment.

The next phase is to start to build up case studies using the interview material and the information gleaned from the base line audit of assessment practice that we have carried out. The case studies are quite comprehensive as the explore the module assessment landscape from the perspective of the people who set and assess the assignments . It will detail the role played by individual lecturers in assessment and teaching on a module and look to build a holistic picture of the subsequent assessment experience of a student taking the module. We are looking beneath the surface of the assessment practice to see exactly how and why the module works the way it does.

We are also trying to capture the student view via a student assessment questionnaire and are looking to conduct some focus groups. This information will be critical to our evaluation of the project to look at the before and after picture of student engagement and attainment on the modules.

We are now starting to thing about the next phase of the project - the most exciting - that of the re engineering of the module - this is when we dare to ask "What if ?"

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

I am really starting to get a feel for what the ESCAPE project can achieve now that I have had a chance to meet people in other schools and to get their input on what the project will mean for them. I meet last week with Peter Stanbury - a senior member of the School of Life Sciences in a similar way that Mark & I met with representatives of the Business School. In each case they could see a real need for the project and anticipated its benefits. In each case we were welcomed with offers of all the help and access that we would need to help make the project a success. In many cases they were able to show how it dovetailed with work that had already being going on in their schools to address issues that they were aware of. It will be interesting to see how we can help and influence each other.

At the moment I am involved in writing up part of the project plan. Working on the workpackages aspect of the plan made me think of how in practice we will work with the stakeholders in the schools. Whatever model of working we adopt I am confident - having met with the schools -that we will get all the support, encouragement and cooperation we need. This is one of the key foundations for successthat the project needs - we are building on these initial meetings with a further series of meetings - snow permitting- this week.

Meeting with Management Team of the Business School

The ESCAPE project will work with the Business School and also the School of Life Sciences. Naturally we are presently on many paper trails looking at current practice. This will inform our project and evaluation plans. To support and enhance our ‘paper-trailing’ Dominic and I sat with Mike Broadbent Head of Department: Accounting, Finance and Economics (Chair of Faculty Learning and Teaching Group) and Karen Robins (Associate Head of Department (Management Systems)), from the Business School yesterday. We had a really productive meeting. They seem to have as much energy and enthusiasm for the ESCAPE project as we have. We discussed some of their general Teaching, Learning and Assessment challenges as well as the ESCAPE project.

Predominantly their challenges lie in the area of large groups and direct entry students. Large classes present many different challenges which we need to unpack and provide appropriate responses to. I am aware of the excellent work done by David Kraithman (and others) where they spent some time and effort providing really useful and accessible electronic resources to the students. The motivation being to move the lectures from being didactic information giving affairs to being more seminar based interactions. It will be of little surprise that class performance improved. Great job David! Not only does this show how technology can help the teaching and learning nexus but also how the out of class engagement can, and indeed should, inform the in class engagement.


I was also musing also at some of the practicalities of assessing large classes too. My largest class probably peaked at around 200. For some modules in the Business School student numbers are higher. I heard that a self service coursework hand in-box was withdrawn from use due to the potential Health and safety issues as queues of students formed to submit their work just before the submission deadline. I then got thinking about a class size of say 360 students and considered the case where each student submits their work in a plastic wallet - a reasonably common phenomenon Assuming it takes around 5 seconds to pick up and take out the work from the wallet and then another 5 seconds to put it back after marking (i.e.10 seconds per student), this trivial activity alone adds another hour to the assessment burden. Okay, this might not seem like much but as class sizes grow so too does the time and distraction for engaging in trivial non learning oriented activity.

Clearly there is much potential in electronic submission, which UH has, but making those systems useable and also configurable to suit the various usage patterns is no trivial activity.

We spoke of the Business School’s desire to meet the University’s target to reduce its time to return coursework and conversations moved to marinating the standard of assessment. Again, I have views here, which essential centre on the notion of ‘what’s the use of an integrated, challenging, well thought through piece of coursework if the attendant marking demand suggests its takes 6 weeks to return the feedback?’. Cleary I am not suggesting moving away from establishing authentic and challenging assessment tasks but there might be some work here in looking at the assessment experience in its entirety.

A really good meeting and one which established a positive tone for engagement but quite rightly set down some challenges from the chalk (pc) face for us to consider.

200 yards with the Business School

The ESCAPE project will work with two Schools - the School of Life Sciences and the Business School. On Monday 17th November I ran a workshop on assessment and feedback for the Business School. Although not specifically tied to the project it was a great opportunity to start/feed into the dialogue on assessment / feedback in the school and in particular help the School to respond to the challenges raised by the National Student Survey (NSS).

I had a full-ish room - (around 40 - 50 people - I think!) I mixed the session up with some presentational material - which mainly focused around principles of good assessment and feedback practice, with the chance for the School to reflect on their own assessment practice and identify where and how their current assessment practice aligns with the principles. We had a really engaging discussion, which naturally included observations suggesting students don’t really understand what feedback is, through to trying to identify opportunities for each person to think about how they can make a small commitment to change.

Although good assessment is an embedded and aligned activity (and not as John Heywood writes ‘too often afterthought of higher education’) assessment practice can be enhanced by constant reflection and a commitment to make on-going small changes.

I am minded of the wonderful notion that I cannot map out how to get to china. But I know how to walk 200 yards - and in 200 yards time I will ask someone else the direction towards china. Join my 200 yards together and soon enough I will be in China.

I challenged the Business School to work with me and help them be the most improved School in the University relating to Assessment and Feedback - NSS wise. Let’s see if they rise to my challenge.

Thanks Business School - great session