ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT OF ASSESSMENT (EMA) - AN …policy, excellent business processes and accurate module assessment information •Ensuring that excellent services contribute to

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTCopyright University of Reading

Introduction To EMA

March 2017

1.01

ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT OF ASSESSMENT (EMA) - AN OVERVIEW

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT

EMA OVERVIEW• The programme has the following vision:

“The EMA programme will, working in conjunction with other assessment and feedback initiatives, deliver sustainable and integrated policies, processes, practices and tools to support the delivery of an improved, consistent and

seamless online assessment experience for academics, professional staff and students.”

• The objectives of the EMA programme are to systemise, electronically, the end to end assessment process to:

1. Enabling a consistently good student assessment experience

2. Providing an improved and supported assessment experience for staff

3. Reducing the administrative burden of assessment for the University


EMA OVERVIEW• Following presentations to UEB and Strategy and Finance Committee (S&FC)

in January 2017 the programme was given approval

• The agreed objectives of the programme are:




Students:This means the following are likely to be the same (or very similar) across the university for every student:• Submitting coursework• Receiving feedback and grades• Imposition of deadlines• Resolution of problems• Viewing results (both coursework and exams)


EMA OVERVIEW• Following presentations to UEB and Strategy and Finance Committee (S&FC)






Academic staff:• Full support for consistent eSubmission, Feedback

and Grading tools• Access to improved resources to support assessment• Access to improved information about student

performance• Spend less time administering assessment


UOR HISTORY / BACKGROUND• Following presentations to UEB and Strategy and Finance Committee (S&FC)






Professional staff have:• Improved business processes which are less manual

and use integrated IT systems more effectively• Reliable systems from which to deliver their serviceGiving the university• Improved management information• Scalable systems to cope with changes in student

numbers


DRAFT

HOW?

1. Programme Information

2. Module Specification

(inc. Assessment Information)

3. Assignments Set,

Undertaken, Submitted, Graded and

Fed Back

4. Moderation(internal and

External)

5. Calculate Module Result

6. Calculate Overall Award

0. Process Management / Policies

To systemise, electronically, the end to end process and thereby meet the programme’s objectives:

This means:• Provisioning for eSFG• Aligning policies and best practice to facilitate eSFG• Improving the underpinning processes to make them less manual

thus reducing their complexity and the potential for error• Providing a source of data from which reporting can be generated, in

particular in the form of a Student Dashboard


SCOPE • Considering the programme scope, we have organised the work into 5 work

streams:

1. Change (including Modelling Best Practice and Change Management, which including an Assessment Website)

2. eSFG and Data

3. Core Systems (including Systems Integration and Sub Modular Marks)

4. Student Feedback “Dashboard” (for staff to view as well)

5. Learning Analytics

• Across the whole university and Malaysia, for UG and PGT summative assessment


KEY DRIVERS• Meeting student expectations

• Providing the best quality service possible, ensuring consistent application of policy, excellent business processes and accurate module assessment information

• Ensuring that excellent services contribute to an excellent reputation and standing

• Providing management information and data to enable the university to manage assessment as effectively as possible

• Increase in the efficiency of administering assessment

• Increase the capacity of the university, from an administrative perspective, to manage increasing student numbers


BENEFITS For Academics For Professional Staff / UoR For Students

Increased transparency has been shown to improve standard and consistency of marking and feedback

Improved data to allow focus on individuals requiring additional support

Increased student satisfaction has a positive impact on student performance

No need to manage large volumes of paper

Confidence of knowing marking is backed up and secure

Saves times through use of standard comment banks, not having to repeatedly write the same things

Reduced time spent undertaking marking which can be invested in the pedagogical elements of the process

Originality and plagiarism is able to be checked within the same system

Reduced time spent entering marks into multiple systems or spreadsheets

Use of rubric(s) Analytical data, drawn from online

marking tools can be used to feedback into curriculum design

Improves the scalability of the solution and therefore the ability to manage increased numbers of student

Ability to be able to understand the full cost profile for delivery of the supporting service

Improved communication with academics which is faster and more focussed

Improved ability to easily deal with problems when they arise e.g. late submissions

Reduction in the number of errors caused by manual handling and standalone spreadsheets / databases

Easier access to moderators and external examiners (without having to physically move papers)

Secure storage of assignments Addressing demands for improvements in

security and the provision of better audit trails

Benefit from reliable data collection to drive decision making

More positive assessment experience leading to increased satisfaction, confidence and engagement

More engaging and multi-dimensional feedback

Improved clarity of feedback especially via the use of in text comments

Feedback is more clearly aligned with marking criteria

Access to additional assessment provision including TURNITIN

Enables the development of a student feedback dashboard containing personalised analytics

Receipting for all assignments Confidence of knowing work is backed

up Realistic timing of submissions (23:59

means 23:59) Giving students increased visibility on

the whole process Increased privacy of feedback Feedback in a format that can be

revisited time and again Meeting expectations


PLAN• Announced in January 2017

• Formal Launch in March 2017

• Delivery of products for the new academic year 2017/18


EMA PROGRAMME TEAMS

• EMA is a collaboration and not “done to”

• We need to bring all the key University players with us

• 1 virtual team – also supported by the other key functions within the University – e.g HR, Legal Services, Health and Safety, etc. EMA Team

TEL Team

IT

T&L OpsExams

PSO

CQSD

Academics


PROGRAMME ORGANISATION


EMA PROGRAMME ELEMENTS

• Like an iceberg, much of the EMA work is required “under the water” and invisible

• However, it is essential for support of the vital visible pieces

• Find out more at:

www.reading.ac.uk/ema

• Contact us at:

[email protected]

UoR Strategy

and Culture

eSFG New

Tools

Modelling

Best

Practice

Learning

Analytics

Core Systems

Change

Tools

http://www.reading.ac.uk/ema

Documents

ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT OF ASSESSMENT (EMA) - AN …policy, excellent business processes and accurate module assessment information •Ensuring that excellent services contribute to