SCIMS Processing assessment marks

Introduction

This is a guide to recording assessment marks in SCIMS, processing them into module marks and grades, and dealing with reassessments. The processes involved fall naturally into two phases: first the gathering of marks, initial recording and the production of paperwork in preparation for the Examiners= Meeting, and second the confirmation of marks after this meeting, and the processing of any adjustments ordered by the Examiners, such as penalties for cheating or compensation for extenuating circumstances. Students who fail a module are normally given the opportunity to re-sit some or all of the assessments, and similar sets of procedures are required to deal with reassessment marks.

Actual and agreed marks: The marks you are dealing with in the first part of the process are referred to, in SCIMS terms, as actual marks. These are the marks awarded by the staff who mark the assessments. Once these marks have been ratified, or perhaps modified, at the Examiners= Meeting, they become agreed marks. These are the marks used to determine the module results and the awarding of credits. These are the marks released to the students through eVision.

The first part of this guide deals with the collection and input of actual marks, and the preparation for the examiners= meeting. Part 2 covers the conversion of actual marks to agreed marks, the procedures for dealing with exceptional situations ruled on by the Examiners, such as students having special conditions imposed after being found guilty of cheating. Part 2 also covers the processing of reassessment marks.

Mark input and the VLE: There are two ways of getting the actual marks into the system: by manual entry, i.e. by typing them, or by import from a file. If marks are already in a file, it makes sense to use that file rather than to transcribe the marks. Although manual input has in the past been the most popular method, with many schools finding that some modules are being taught to large numbers of students, the collection and transcription of marks by manual means is becoming time consuming and potentially error-prone. It will, in such cases, be worth considering whether markers can enter marks themselves, not into SCIMS but into an intermediate file, ideally a spreadsheet. It is then a speedy process to copy these marks into a file from which SCIMS can read them. The virtual Learning Environment (WebCT) can export marks from its >grade book= in such a file. However, the introduction of the new degree structure in 2009/10 has complicated the use of WebCT-generated spreadsheets in some cases. Many modules are now offered simultaneously as core modules and electives. In order for schools to be able to set a limit on the number of students taking a module as an elective, SCIMS has to distinguish between students who take a module in the two ways. Unfortunately, WebCT does not recognise this distinction and cannot group the students in this way. In the spreadsheet it uses to provide students marks, the core and elective students are mixed up. This does not prevent the import of marks from the WebCT spreadsheet, but it does necessitate some sorting and resorting of records to harmonise the SCIMS and WebCT files. The details of how to use spreadsheets for mark input in Part 1 of this guide have therefore been expanded considerably to cope with this requirement. Anyone who is already used to reordering the rows of a spreadsheet will have no problems; anyone not so familiar may find the instructions daunting, but it is in fact a task made up of very simple steps B they just take a lot of description. The effort saved, once the technique is understood, will repay the time spent learning it.

Alex Richardson

MIS Group F&IT

SCIMS Team

April 2010

Contents

Part 1: Entering marks ......................................................................................................... 1

The basic procedure.................................................................................................... 1

How to do it.................................................................................................................. 2

1 Checking the student list ..................................................................................... 2 2 Printing marking sheets ....................................................................................... 2 3 Creating the assessment records........................................................................ 3 4 Entering the marks .............................................................................................. 3 Adding or changing marks ............................................................................................ 4 5 Generate the module results ............................................................................... 4 6 Reports ................................................................................................................ 4

Using spreadsheets to input marks ............................................................................. 5

Advantages of using spreadsheets............................................................................... 5 The process in outline................................................................................................... 5 Producing a spreadsheet file from SAS ........................................................................ 5 Using the default file names and folders....................................................................... 6 Using your own file name and folder............................................................................. 6 Using your own spreadsheet or the spreadsheet produced by WebCT........................ 6 Working with WebCT .................................................................................................... 7 Dealing with multiple occurrences ................................................................................ 8

Part 2: Agreed Marks and Reassessment ......................................................................... 9

Creating agreed marks B TMR...................................................................................... 9 Held status .................................................................................................................. 10 Altering the agreed marks of Held students B SAS option 9 ....................................... 10 Informing students of reassessment requirements ..................................................... 12 Processing reassessment marks B RAS..................................................................... 12 Held status after RAS B option 7................................................................................. 13 Students repeating modules in the next year B RPTMOD ......................................... 14 Students repeating assessments in the next year without attending the module B

RPTASS ............................................................................................................ 14 Students repeating whole years B RPTFT .................................................................. 14 The SMRU screen B Student Module Results Undo ................................................... 14

Dealing with academic misconduct............................................................................ 16

1

Part 1: Entering marks

The basic procedure This is the procedure for entering marks manually. You do not have to enter marks manually, you can import them from spreadsheets, and there are many advantages to doing it that way, but manual entry is considered first here in order to outline the basic procedure. Spreadsheets are considered later.

This is an outline list of the steps in order; details are given under How to do it on page 2.

1 Check you have the correct list of students

The records that will hold students= marks in SCIMS are created from the records that SCIMS already holds of which students are taking which modules B the SMO records. Unless you are sure that the list of students registered for the module is correct, check it.

You can use the SCIMS module report MODS04 or the marking sheet reports (see below) which are all derived from SMO records, but if you need to make changes you will need to use the SMO screen itself.

2 Obtain the marks

The SCIMS Assessment Reports menu offers several variations of mark sheets. The sheets can be used for single or double marking, and for anonymous or non-anonymous marking.

3 Create assessment records within SCIMS

Before you can start entering the marks SCIMS has to have somewhere to store them. You need to create a set of blank assessment records, i.e. the sets of fields that are going to hold all the marks for all the students and for all the assessments associated with the module you are dealing with. These blank records are not created automatically B you get SCIMS to create them when you are sure you have the correct list of students who have taken the module (see 1). You use the SAS screen to create the assessment records.

4 Type in the marks and check the grades

You can enter marks all at once, or for just one assessment, or for just a few students at a time, as marks become available. This process is also done through the SAS screen, and until you convert the marks to agreed marks you can keep on returning to SAS and add to or alter what you have done already.

You enter just the marks; grades (for the assessments) are generated automatically by SCIMS. It gives the student a P grade if the assessment mark is at least the assessment pass mark, and PR (provisional) if below. However, if the student has submitted extenuating circumstances for the assessment, you should change the grade to EC, and if the student is under investigation for academic misconduct or there is another reason why the mark is being delayed, you should enter MP (mark pending) as the grade. Alternatively, if a student has not attended/hand-in the assessment and does not have extenuating circumstances enter a mark of 0 and a grade of NS (no show).These grades B EC and MP B will be visible in the reports you prepare for the examiners= meeting, and will enable the students who require decisions to be made or confirmed to be identified.

5 Calculate the module marks

SCIMS knows how to calculate the module results by combining the assessment marks with the appropriate weightings. Each module has a record in SCIMS that sets out how assessment marks should be combined, and whether students have to get specific marks in individual assessments in order to pass the module (qualifying marks).

Doing this is the final part of the normal procedure carried out in SAS, but even after calculating the module marks you can still go back and make changes. For instance, you do not have to have a complete set of marks in order to generate the module marks B students who have missing marks will just not get an overall module mark. If marks arrive late you can add them, then regenerate the module marks. You can also alter marks already entered, but do remember to recalculate the module marks as the effect of changes to assessment marks or grades will not show up in the module results unless you regenerate them.

6 Prepare reports for the examiners= meeting

An assessment report is available to provide the examiners with details of the students= individual assessment marks and their provisional module mark and grade. This report also shows where students have been flagged with EC and MP so that the meeting can resolve these issues.

Another assessment report provides you with a sheet on which to record minutes of any decisions that affect students= marks. These minutes have to be transcribed into SCIMS when marks are altered.

How to do it 1 Checking the student list

You can see the students registered for the module through SCIMS reports MODS04 for undergraduates or MODS02 for postgraduates (though MODS04 also works for postgraduate modules) or by viewing the marking sheet (see below). However, if you expect to have to make changes, you may as well use the SMO screen. Bring up SMO and enter the module code and the current year, and any other details you need to retrieve the instance of the module you are dealing with.

Note that some undergraduate modules are offered as both core modules and electives, and in such cases you should leave the Occ (occurrence) field in SMO blank when retrieving the students, so that students registered on both the A (core) and Y (elective) occurrences of the module are retrieved B as in the example at the right. Use the module code and year value to do the retrieval, and if the module runs more than once in the academic year use the period (SEM1 etc) if necessary.

If you have to remove a student from SMO, click on the record for that student, open the File menu and click on Delete. To add a student, click on Add in the File menu, enter the details as for other students, then store (F6).

2 Printing marking sheets

If you want to use the marking sheets SCIMS produces, go to the Reports menu (from the SCIMS Main Menu) and select Assessment Reports, then UG/PG Assessment Reports, then select the report ASS12 Assessment Marking Sheet. Select your school and the module. If there is more than one assessment for the module, select the one for which you want a sheet, or if you need several sheets select each assessment in turn and view then print each sheet.

Note that if you used the E1or E2 fields in the SMO screen to allocate students to different teaching groups, you can obtain separate marking sheets for each group by selecting Group by Class in the report set-up screen (E1is Class 1 and E2 is Class 2).

There are options for printing names or numbers, or both, on the forms, and for sorting in name or number order. For anonymous marking, you should of course select just the student numbers to appear on the marking sheets, and the list will then automatically be in numeric order. When you have to enter marks (step 4) you will be presented with the students= records in name order, so it will be easier if the marking sheets are in name order, but you will have the numbers on screen as wel, so you will be able to find the students on the mark sheet if this is in numeric order. You can also sort the entry screens into numeric order, and modules can, on request, be set up so that students are always in numeric order.

If the module is offered as both a core module and an elective, the students taking the module will appear as two groups on the sheet, with students taking the module as an elective together at the end. There is an option to amalgamate them, but, again, the mark input screens split the students by module occurrence, and it may be as well to keep the marking sheets the same.

2

3

3 Creating the assessment records

Note that if you have used SCIMS to administer course-work for this module, the assessment records will already exist B you can skip this part of the procedure.

Note that if you have any students taking the module who are repeating the year (mode of attendance in the SCE and SPR screens will be shown as RPTFT i.e. repeat full time) you should perform this step of creating the assessment records at least a day before you want to start recording marks. You will not be able to enter marks for RPTFT students unless their assessment records are modified by a program that runs overnight. It changes their attempt number to 1, as students repeating the whole year should be treated as if they are attempting the assessments for the first time. When the assessment records are first created, SCIMS will set their attempt number one higher than their previous attempt; it will be reset to 1 overnight.

To create the assessment records, first bring up the SAS screen. Enter the year and the module code. If necessary, use the Period to distinguish between repeats of a module in the same year B enter SEM1 or SEM2, or SEM1-2, or TRI1 or TRI2 etc.

Click on the green arrow at the right of the screen for option 1b Generate assessment records for students.

SCIMS will tell you how many module occurrences it has picked up, and how many students there are on the module. Accept this, and in the next box that comes up, click on Run now.

4 Entering the marks

Use the SAS screen again, and if necessary select the module as above. If you want to do only one of the assessments associated with the module, enter its number as a two-digit number (01,02 etc) in the box provided, or leave it blank to do all the assessments in order of SCIMS sequence number.

Click on option 3 Input actual marks for assessment.

The screen for the first assessment, or the one you specified, will come up. It will show the assessment sequence number and its description (2-hour exam etc), and a series of records, one for each student, with blank fields for mark and grade. You can move between these fields only with the Tab key (Shift-Tab to go backwards) or Page Up/Page Down to move to the next/previous student.

If you enter the mark for a student and press the Page Down key, the appropriate grade will appear (P or PR depending on whether the mark was above or below the pass mark) and your cursor will have moved to the next student ready for you to type the next mark. Use Page Down or page Up if you need to miss students out, and continue until all the marks have been entered.

If you need to register extenuating circumstances or that the validity of a mark is being queried, perhaps because of suspected academic misconduct, use the Tab key to move from the student=s mark to the adjacent grade field, and delete the automatically generated grade (press F7 while in the field) and enter EC for extenuating circumstances, NS (no show) for students who did not attend/hand-in the assessment or MP (mark pending) for any other reason, such as misconduct being investigated. Use Tab or Page Up/Page Down to move on.

If you do not have a mark for a student, leave their mark field blank. This may generate warning messages at a later stage, which you can ignore. You can repeat this stage (option 3 in SAS) when you eventually receive a missing mark. Never enter a zero just because you do not have a mark; a zero should be entered only if the tutor has confirmed that the student=s attempt is complete and zero is really the actual mark.

When you have entered all the marks you have for this assessment, click on the Store icon or press F6. Check the message bar at the bottom of the screen for the >store successful= message.

Close the window (the F4 key will do this, or you can use your mouse in the normal way). If you get a message box warning you that there is unsaved data, you forgot to do the store operation B do it now and try again. If there are further assessments, the window for the next one will appear (unless you just asked for one specific assessment in the SAS screen). If you are dealing with two module occurrences at once, e.g. a module offered as a core module and an elective, the screen you have just closed will have been for only the first occurrence, and another screen for the same assessment but the next occurrence will open. Repeat the process until all assessment marks have been entered. You can break off before all the marks have been entered and continue later, if you wish B just close the windows, but do not forget to Store first.

Adding or changing marks

If you did not complete the entry of marks for an assessment, or if you need to alter any of the marks you entered because, say, a second marker has been called in (but not because of a decision at the examiners= meeting B that is a different process, dealt with in Part 2) just use SAS option 3 again for the assessment. The assessment records will appear as before, but now they will have the previously entered marks in place, and you can make the changes you want. Remember to Store (you will be reminded if you try to close down the window without storing). You can limit the screens presented to you to just those you need to work with by putting appropriate values in the Occurrence and Assessment sequence number boxes in the top part of the SAS screen.

5 Generate the module results

Once you have entered marks for all the assessments associated with a module for at least some of the students, so that they have a complete set of marks, you can get SCIMS to calculate the module results for them. In the SAS screen use option 6.

You will receive a report of progress, including messages about any missing marks, but for the students who have a full set of marks SCIMS will combine them into an overall module result using the weightings specified for the module. If you see messages about >rounding= this is just SCIMS doing the arithmetic on individual marks to combine them into a module result that is a whole number.

If you want to see the results of the calculations you can retrieve the module through the SMR screen, which shows module results (see illustration).

If you ever go back and add or change any marks for any of these students (option 3 again) you must regenerate the results (option 6 again) B altering an assessment mark does not automatically update the combined module mark.

Note: Some modules include assessments that do not count towards the final module mark B they have a weighting of 0%. In some cases these are pass/fail assessments that can be marked 0 or 1 and the >qualifying mark= is 1. In these cases, although the students do not get any marks added to their module mark for passing this assessment they nevertheless have to pass the assessment (with a 1) to get a pass grade for the module.

In some cases these may be what are called formative assessments, such as practice tests or essays. Although the students do not have to pass these assessments, and the marks for them will not affect their overall module marks, they are part of the module=s assessment pattern and a mark does have to be entered. In calculating the module result, SCIMS will multiply this mark by zero, but without a mark SCIMS will be unable to calculate a module mark. The marks for formative assessments will also appear in certain reports.

6 Reports

When you have a set of module results you can produce the reports needed for the examiners= meeting. For undergraduates the reports are ASS14 Assessment Summary and ASS15 Exam Board Minutes. For postgraduates the corresponding reports are ASS04 and ASS05, but ASS14 also works for postgraduates, and may be preferred.

4

Using spreadsheets to input marks

Advantages of using spreadsheets

Instead of printing out marking sheets, you can give the markers an on-line spreadsheet into which they enter the marks directly. The marks collected in this way can be imported by SCIMS, avoiding the need for you to transcribe them.

5

Alternatively, you may prefer to type the marks into a spreadsheet yourself, particularly if markers send you the marks for individual questions and expect you to combine these marks into an assessment mark B you can use a formula in your spreadsheet.

Whether the markers send you back the completed spreadsheet file, or you create it yourself, you can extract the marks from such a spreadsheet and read them into SCIMS, saving yourself the trouble of retyping the marks in SCIMS and eliminating possible transcription errors.

Using spreadsheets has another advantage: If your module is offered as a core module and an elective, SCIMS sees that as a module with two >occurrences= (occurrence codes A and Y) and the manual process for entering marks will entail entering marks for each module occurrence separately. Using spreadsheet import of marks, you can arrange for the two occurrences to be merged, i.e. you will be dealing with only one set of students, and there will be no separate treatment depending on occurrence (A and Y occurrence codes).

The process in outline

SCIMS will accept marks from files created from spreadsheets, but only in one very specific layout.

The layout must correspond precisely with the layout SCIMS produces itself through its Export function. You could meet this requirement simply by adhering to the following procedure.

1 Create the blank assessment records (SAS 1b).

2 Export the records to a spreadsheet (SAS 4) B which will have blank cells where the marks should be, but will be in the required format.

3 Enter the marks by filling in the blanks and storing the otherwise unchanged spreadsheet.

4 Import the new version of the spreadsheet (SAS 5).

This layout of the exported spreadsheet is shown below. The sheet contains many columns you don=t really need, and it contains the students= names (obscured in this example) which creates a problem for anonymous marking. It is unlikely that you will want to give this sheet, as it stands, to the people doing the marking, but you could if you wished, and you could use it yourself. However, you will probably prefer to use your own, purpose-built, spreadsheet for collecting the marks B all you have to do is copy the marks from your sheet into the appropriate column in the SCIMS-produced sheet. Of course, you must ensure that they are in the right order when you do the copying.

First, here is the procedure for exporting and importing the SCIMS-produced spreadsheet files. How to combine these with your own marker-friendly sheet is described later, but you always need to start with an export and finish with the import.

Producing a spreadsheet file from SAS

You have a choice to make. You can let SCIMS store exported sheets in its default folder, with default names, or you can choose your own folder and specify a file name. This is an important choice, because if you let SCIMS use its defaults, it will create a separate file for each assessment, and a separate set of files for each occurrence B so if you have an A and a Y occurrence of the module, and the module has four assessments, it will produce eight sheets in eight separate files. If you specify your own file and folder, it will put all the records in the single file. Letting SCIMS use its default folder and file names is straightforward; you know which file is which because their names include the module code, the assessment number and the occurrence code. However, if you are receiving marks in the forms of spreadsheets

generated by WebCT it is a problem: WebCT takes no account of the occurrence, and just lists all students in name order.

If you nominate your own file name, SCIMS will put all the records into that single file, however many assessments and occurrences you are dealing with. The rows of the spreadsheet will each be identified with a student number, an assessment number, and an occurrence B see the column headings in the example above. >Cand Key= (Candidate Key) is the student number. You can exploit this feature to cope with WebCT results which typically have all students and marks in one file.

Both methods are described below. Allowing SCIMS to use its defaults is easier, but using your own files is better for WebCT.

Using the default file names and folders

The default folder into which SCIMS exports is called mark_sheets. Therefore, before you start, you must create a folder called mark_sheets on your C: drive, in the root, i.e. not inside any other folder, so its full path name is C:\mark_sheets. Also create a folder just called marks (again C:\marks). This is the default folder from which marks will be imported.

After creating the assessment records for a module (option 1b) choose option 4 in the SAS screen. This creates one spreadsheet file for each assessment, and, if appropriate, each occurrence. These files appear in your C:\mark_sheets folder. Their file names will indicate the module code, the occurrence, and the assessment number, e.g. AMS-10007_A_1.CSV (for Occurrence A and Assessment 1 of module AMS-10007). These are not actually Excel (.xls) files, they are comma-separated (.csv) files, but Excel and other spreadsheet programs will be able to work with them.

The sheets will have blank columns for marks and grades. To use these files directly, open them in a spreadsheet program and enter the marks in the appropriate cells, but do not enter grades unless you want to put in EC and MP. SCIMS will put in the P or PR grades when it imports the marks, but any ECs or MPs you enter will over-ride these.

Once you have completed the mark entry, save the file, but use Save As in the spreadsheet=s File menu and save the file in your marks folder (do not change the file name). When saving, if your spreadsheet program offers to change the file format, do not accept B you must keep the comma-separated (.csv) format.

You can then use option 5 on the SAS screen to import the marks. SCIMS will import the marks, and any grades entered, from all the files in the marks folder that it recognises (by their names corresponding to assessments in the module you are dealing with). You can review what was imported by using Option 3 in SAS.

Using your own file name and folder

If you click on the icon to the right of the boxes in the Export and Import lines of the SAS screen, you will be able to navigate to any folder you have, and specify a file you want to use. A normal Windows file open dialogue box will appear when you click on the icon. You will be able to type a new file name in this window, for SCIMS to use if you are exporting, or select an existing file if you are importing. When giving the file name to crate a file for export, remember that its extension should be csv e.g. che30001.csv

When you export in this way, SCIMS will, instead of creating a file for every assessment/occurrence combination, use the file you have nominated for everything. This is closer to the format used by WebCT, which does not distinguish between occurrences.

If you just want to deal with one assessment at a time, select that in SAS before exporting.

Using your own spreadsheet or the spreadsheet produced by WebCT

Although you must use the SCIMS file or files to do the final import, there is no need to use them for the rest of the procedure, and it is a relatively simple task to allow the markers to use a purpose-built spreadsheet that will be more convenient for them. All you have to do is copy and paste the marks and grades to the corresponding SCIMS-generated sheet and do the import. The process is more complicated if your module is offered as both a core module and an elective, but this is considered later.

6

An example of a spreadsheet suitable for use directly by the staff marking the assessments is shown here. You could create a spreadsheet with a similar structure simply by typing the column headings into a blank spreadsheet and using the standard font selection and formatting tools.

In this example, there are two columns headed >Student= B for the student numbers. Having the student number at each side will help the markers to enter the marks in the correct rows. Into these >Student= columns you could paste the student numbers that were exported by SCIMS (CandKey in the previous illustration, same as SPR Code). Just drag over the student numbers in one of the SCIMS sheets and use copy (Ctrl-C) then in your own sheet position your cursor in the cell below the left-hand >Student= and paste (Ctrl-V). Paste again at the right-hand side. You may wish to sort the student numbers into numeric order (rather than name order) before you copy them. To do this, use the Data menu in Excel, and remember that the sheet has a >header row=.

Send the prepared spreadsheet file to the marker(s), and when the marks, and any EC or MP grades, have been entered, and the spreadsheet returned to you, use the copy and paste technique to transfer each pair of mark/grade columns to the appropriate SCIMS sheet, and save into the marks folder for import. If you sorted them before copying, remember to sort them back into the original order before importing (sort on Name).

The simple sheet shown here could, of course, be adapted for use by two markers, or could be expanded to allow for the entry of, say, marks for individual exam questions and their combination into an assessment mark through a spreadsheet formula. You can set up this process in any way that suits you and your school=s way of working, as long as you eventually arrive at a correctly filled in, and otherwise unaltered spreadsheet in the format and sort order generated by SCIMS.

Working with WebCT

Marks stored within the WebCT grade-book can be exported as a spreadsheet (also a CSV file) and the marks can then be copy/pasted into the SCIMS sheets. WebCT has no record of student numbers, and the file it exports will have the students in name order. An example of a grade-book export is shown below.

This order of records will correspond to the original order in the file or files exported by SCIMS, but it is worth checking that SCIMS and WebCT have the same list of students before copying the marks.

If you have exported form SCIMS into a single file, and there are multiple assessments, the SCIMS file will have the list of students repeated for each assessment, in successive groups of rows with the assessment 01 group at the top. In the WebCT file, the assessment marks appear in adjacent columns, but they can be copied, a column at a time, into the appropriate cells in the SCIMS sheet.

However, problems arise if your module has two concurrent occurrence in SCIMS, e.g.. an A and a Y occurrence code (when the module is offered as both a core and elective module). WebCT makes no distinction between occurrences, and all the students will be listed just once, as shown above, in alphabetical order irrespective of the module occurrence they are assigned to in SCIMS.

7

Dealing with multiple occurrences

For modules that have some students taking them as a core module, and some as an elective, there is no information in the WebCT output you can use to resort it into a SCIMS-compatible order, so you have to sort the sheet output by SCIMS before you attempt to paste in the marks. You should export from SCIMS into a single sheet, as described above (specify the file name and folder yourself), so that all assessments and occurrences appear in the same file.

For example, if your module has two assessments, you will find all the students for the A occurrence listed twice, first for assessment 01, then for assessment 02. They will be in rows, in ascending order of surname. If there are ten students taking the A occurrence, there will be ten rows for assessment 01 followed by another ten for assessment 02.

If there are three students taking the module as an elective, there will then be six more rows for these students: three for assessment 01 and three for assessment 02.

To sort the SCIMS sheet into an order compatible with the WebCT sheet you can take advantage of your spreadsheet program=s ability to sort on multiple keys. The current sort order of the SCIMS sheet is by occurrence, then by assessment sequence number within occurrence, then by name within assessment. You need to get rid of the sorting by occurrence (which WebCT does not do). In Excel you should use the Data menu, select Sort, and enter sorting criteria as shown here.

The students for the Y occurrence will then be mixed in with those for the A occurrence, as in WebCT. You can then paste in the marks from the WebCT spreadsheet, and finally, before importing into SCIMS, sort the records back into the SCIMS order. This means using the Occurrence (Occ column) as the primary sort key, then Assessment number and finally Name - as shown here.

Note In practice this is a lot easier than it looks.

8

Part 2: Agreed Marks and Reassessment

Procedures outlined in this part are those that will be required after the meeting with the external examiner. Procedures leading up to the meeting are covered in Part 1.

For most students, the examiners= meeting will have accepted the actual marks, and you can simply transfer them to be agreed marks and allow SCIMS to confirm whether the students passed or failed the module. In cases of failure SCIMS will allocate reassessments as required.

9

For a few students, the examiners may have agreed marks that are different from the actual marks B in cases of extenuating circumstances or academic misconduct, for example, but the vast majority of marks will not require alteration. It therefore makes sense to let SCIMS use its ability to copy all actual marks to create agreed marks and in the few cases where that has resulted in an incorrect agreed mark or grade you can alter individual records.

Even if the marks themselves have not changed, you will have to remove any EC and MP grades initially used to highlight the assessments but which will have carried over to be the agreed grades.

You should of course make alterations, to marks or grades, only in accordance with the signed minutes of the Examiners= Meeting. You must also copy each minute into SCIMS when you make the associated change. A field is provided in the SCIMS records for each student=s marks for the text of any examiners= meeting minute, and this becomes a permanent record of the reason for any alteration to students= mark. This is vitally important in case a query is raised in the future. The actual marks and grades you

entered through SAS will always be there, and if the agreed marks and/or grades are different from the actual ones there must be a reason for the differences and this must be stored in the minutes field.

There may be a few students for whom a decision is still pending. This need not prevent you from processing the marks of all the other students. You could leave these students with incorrect agreed marks, though it would be better practice to use the procedure described later (under SMRU) to roll these students= marks back to the previous state where they did not have any agreed marks. In any case, while students continue to have an MP (Mark Pending) grade, their marks will not appear in SCIMS reports or in the students= eVision pages.

There are several ways of accomplishing these tasks in SCIMS, but these notes describe the currently recommended procedures that will enable you to do everything that will normally be required. Recommendations have changed over the years, so you may find you have colleagues who do things in a different way. In particular, the use of the SMRU screen is now avoided as much as possible; it is a powerful tool that can be used for any adjustments, but there are simpler tools that can be used in most circumstances. You may find that some of your colleagues use SMRU for all changes, whereas it is needed only to implement the more complicated penalties that may be applied to the worst cases of >academic misconduct=. There are separate sections in this guide devoted to the use of SMRU, and to taking you through the various judgements and penalties that may be handed down in cases of misconduct.

Creating agreed marks B TMR

This is the first step. It simply makes SCIMS copy all the >actual= marks and grades into the fields SCIMS already has set up for >agreed= marks and grades. These will currently be blank, but TMR will populate them with the actual assessment marks you entered through SAS and the module marks and grades calculated through SAS.

This will be all you need to do for the vast majority of students on any module. For modules in which there are no cases of marks being adjusted or EC or MP to be dealt with this is the end of the matter, apart from the printing of reports if required.

To perform this copying, bring up the TMR (Tick Module Results) screen. Fill out the fields necessary to select the correct module B module code, year and, if the module runs more than once per year, the period (SEM1, TRI2 etc). If the module has more than one occurrence in the period, you must enter an occurrence code, e.g. A or Y, as TMR will not assume you want to do them all, and will display the message Too many MAV records selected. In such cases you have to process the occurrences one at a time.

Click on process 1: Set module agreed = actual

SCIMS will confirm the number of students whose results are being >ticked=. Note that TMR will not work for any students who have an incomplete set of actual marks for this module, or students who have a complete set of marks but for whom the module result has not yet been calculated (SAS 6).

If there were no changes made at the Examiners= Meeting, and there are no students awaiting decisions, that is all you have to do. It would be wise to check that all is well by looking at the SMR screen for this module. In SMR you should now see both the actual and the agreed module marks

In SMR the students who passed will have a grade of P and a Current Process (in the Cur Pro column) of COM (completed) while those who failed will have a grade of F or Q. F simply means that their module mark is below the pass mark. Q is a >qualifying failure= which can happen in modules that contain assessments in which the students have to achieve at least a certain mark (the >qualifying mark=) in order to pass the module, so students may have achieved an overall module mark above the module pass mark, but still have one or more reassessments to do in order to get rid of their Q grade. Students with an F or Q grade will have RAS (re-assessment) as their Current Process. Eventually, if a student has exhausted all reassessment opportunities and still not achieved the overall pass mark, or not passed the qualifying assessments if there are any, they will have a Current Process of COM and will have failed the module (grade F).

If any students had an actual grade of EC or MP, this will have been carried through as an agreed grade by the TMR process. These students will have an H (for Held) status.

Held status

If you have students who were given EC or MP grades when you entered the marks in SAS, these grades will have been carried over by TMR, and the students with these grades will be in a >held= state. There will be an H in both the columns shown under Status, and their Current Process will still be shown as SAS (see SMR example above). As these students are held in the SAS process, you can make the required changes by going back to the SAS screen. Students shown in SMR with COM or RAS as their current process are no longer accessible through the SAS process screen, but held students are.

Note that while you are looking at the SMR screen you can see the underlying assessment marks for a student if you select (click on) the record for that student then use the Other menu to go to the Assessment Status screen. This screen shows all assessment marks that the student has been given for the module B all assessments and all attempts.

Altering the agreed marks of Held students B SAS option 9

As long as a student=s current process, as shown in the SMR screen is SAS you can process them through the SAS screen. At this stage, where a student has both actual and agreed marks SAS will let you modify only the agreed marks and grades that are causing the Held status, so that those students will move to the next appropriate state: COM or RAS. Note that this applies only to students on their first attempt B students can go into Held status after re-sits, and there is an equivalent procedure in the RAS screen, described later.

If you need to alter any marks or grades other than those for the assessments causing the Held state, you will not be able to do this through SAS (or RAS) and will have to use another screen B SMRU, which can be used for both initial assessments and re-assessments. The use of SMRU is covered later.

To use SAS option 9, bring up the SAS screen and enter enough details to identify the module you want to work on. Then click on the arrow for option 9 Process held module results.

10

A window will open showing the actual and agreed marks and grades for the first of the held students. Your cursor will be in a box for Agree? and you are invited to type in Y or N. Your reason for being in this window is not agreeing with the marks or grades copied by TMR, so you should type N and press the Tab key (or just press the Tab key B but do not type Y). This will move you to the box containing the agreed mark for the assessment that is causing the student to be in the Held status, or the mark in the first such assessment if there is more than one.

In the example shown here, it only is the first assessment, with a mark of 12 and grade of EC, that will be accessible B reached by Tab; the others are greyed out.

If you need to change the mark, once in the mark field use F7 or the Clear Field icon to remove the mark and enter the new mark, then Tab to the grade field. If you do not need to change the mark but just want to get rid of the EC or MP grade, either clear the mark field and re-enter the previous mark, and when you then tab to the grade field the appropriate P or PR grade will be shown, or, if you prefer to change the grade directly, you can tab into the grade field, clear it (F7) and type in what is required.

As the P and PR grades are generated automatically, the only grade code you will usually need to type directly into the grade field is A1. This grade code indicates that although the student is being required to retake the assessment it will be counted as a first attempt (so avoiding the mark capping that is normally applied to re-assessments). Note that if you put in the A1 grade for an assessment, SCIMS will allocate a reassessment even if the student achieves a pass mark for the module B this enables the student to attempt to achieve a higher overall mark which may affect degree classification.

You will be unable to change any assessment marks that already have a P or PR grade. If this is ever necessary, use SMRU, as described below.

If there are more marks or grades that require attention in the same screen, use Tab to move down to them, otherwise, Tab will take you to the calculated module result. To update this and the associated grade, in accordance with the changes you have made, press F2 or double click in the mark field.

Press Tab again to move through the Note Type box and into the Minutes box. Here you must type the minute of the examiners= meeting that refers to the change you have just made.

If the student has passed the module, tabbing out of the Minutes box will take you to the record for the next held student, if there is one on this module. Otherwise, it will take you below the Minutes box where re-assessment records for all the student=s failed assessments in this module will be shown. These can be changed, if necessary, but normally the only change that might be required is to remove one if, say, the examiners have agreed that a minor assessment should not be retaken. If this is the case, click on the minus sign at the end of the record.

To move to the next held student, use the scroll bar at the right of the window or press the Page Down key.

When you have processed all held students, or all the ones you are able to process, press F6 or click the Store icon to save all your changes, and close the window.

Check that all marks and grades are as required by retrieving the module in the SMR screen. If there are still some students with H status, use SAS option 9 again to correct their records. If there are any mistakes for the students no longer in the SAS process, i.e. they are shown as COM or RAS, you cannot use SAS to correct them, and must use SMRU as described below.

11

Informing students of reassessment requirements

If students have to re-sit examinations, they will be informed of dates and locations by the Examinations Office. If they have to resubmit written work, or attend a test organised within the school, you can inform them of this through a standard letter in SCIMS. Use the SMR screen to retrieve the students with reassessments B retrieve by module code, year, and put RAS in the Cur Pro (Current Process) column.

You can then select individual students who need such a letter and generate it from the Current menu, or generate customised letters for all these students through the All menu. The letter code to use is RASFORM-HTML. This generates individual letters, with the appropriate details for each student, but you can amend or add to the details of the letters before printing them. before the leters are created, you are invited to type in a date; this is the date by which the students must submit the work for re-assessment.

The files containing the letters are called RASFORM(studentnumber).HTM and are output to what SCIMS calls your Current Directory. This will be normally be a folder on your C: drive. You can open it by going to the Help menu at the top of the SCIMS screen and selecting About. This will open a window as shown here (the entry for the Current Directory is highlighted). To open the folder on your PC, double click on the path, which is an active link. Windows Explorer should display the contents of the folder. If you sort these in descending date order, all the letters just created will be at the top.

To see, and if necessary, edit the contents, for a particular student, double click on the file name that contains that student=s number. The letter will be displayed in your web browser. Details of all reassessments will be displayed within a box, and the contents of this box can be edited as required. You can delete, change, or add to the text shown. You can then print the page, which has space for it to be signed by the head of school. If you wish to keep an on-line copy of the changes, you can use Save as in the File menu.

12

Processing reassessment marks B RAS

Normally students will attempt assessments again at the earliest opportunity so as to progress or graduate on schedule, but for a number of reasons students may be reassessed after the end of the academic year, or may repeat years. You have to deal with these different cases in different ways.

Students redoing assessments in the current year

Students who have failed the module will be recognised by SCIMS, and they will bee allocated appropriate reassessments. SCIMS will automatically set up records to receive their reassessment marks. You will not have seen any evidence of this, unless you have altered any of these students= records in SAS option 9, but nevertheless, if reassessment is permitted, SCIMS will have created space to accept reassessment marks. These students will of course show up in the SMR screen, and in Assessment reports, as being in the RAS process.

Normally such students will do re-sits, or resubmit essays etc, in the same academic year. There is an Assessments report to produce marking sheets for just the re-sit students (ASS12R). When their reassessments have been marked, you should use the RAS screen (not SAS) to enter the new actual marks. The RAS screen is similar to SAS but presents to you the records only of students currently in th RAS process. RAS has fewer options than SAS; in particular it does not have an option to generate assessment records B the assessment records you originally created in SAS will be extended automatically for reassessment marks when SCIMS allocates reassessments.

In the RAS screen:

Enter the module details as usual, to retrieve the required module

Use option 2 to input actual marks

The students on this module that are doing reassessments will be presented to you in turn, with spaces for marks only for the assessments they are supposed to have redone.

In SAS you get a screen for each assessment, with all students listed, and you have to store before moving to the next assessment screen; in RAS you get a screen for each student, showing all the reassessments, and you need not Store until you have processed all the students.

Tab through the screen for each student, putting in the new actual marks (and overriding the grades with EC and MP if necessary)

Pressing Tab in the last box for a student will bring up the next student

After completing the entry of marks for the last student, Store (F6) before closing the window

You can Store after each student if you wish, but you will than have to move to the next student with the Page Down key.

After you have stored the new marks, you then need to calculate and set the new module results B click the arrow for option 5a in the RAS screen Calculate and set module result for student(s).

After this, the processing of agreed marks is the same as before: use TMR after the examiners= meeting (TMR will tell you that it is ticking only some of the students on the module B the ones you have given actual marks to through the RAS process) then deal with any held students or other special cases (RAS option 7 or SMRU).

Held status after RAS B option 7

If there are students for which you have entered an EC or MP grade for an assessment that is a second or third attempt, these will go into Held status when you have used TMR after the examiners and/or discipline committee have made decisions. You can re-process these students through RAS option 7, which is just like SAS option 9 described above. When you enter a minute through RAS option 7 for a student who already has a minute recorded from SAS, you will see the previous minute already in the box. Simply add the new text after the existing text, but ensure, by adding wording if necessary, that it is clear which text applies to the original assessment and which to the reassessment.

Students who fail modules on reassessment will have further reassessments allocated by SCIMS, unless they have reached the limit on the number of attempts that are allowed for the module. Students who have done all the reassessments that are allowed will be given a COM status (completed) whether they have passed or failed. However, students can be given extra attempts if you replace the PR assessment grades with A1 for yet

13

another first attempt (uncapped), A2 to repeat a second attempt (mark will still be capped) or A3 for another third attempt B supported, of course, by a minute.

Students repeating modules in the next year B RPTMOD

Students who fail a module and have to attend that module and repeat the assessments in the following year will be processed along with the other student that year, in the normal way, starting with the SAS procedure. SCIMS will keep track of their attempts, so they will appear in the SAS marks input screen with an attempt number of 2 or 3, and SCIMS will do the appropriate mark capping. These students will appear in the SCIMS SMO screen for the module occurrence, and their mode of attendance (in SCE etc) will be RPTMOD.

Students repeating assessments in the next year without attending the module B RPTASS

Any students who are redoing assessments without attending the module will not appear in your module lists (SMO and module reports) so SAS will not create any records for their marks. If you have assessment marks for such students, you should enter them into the previous year=s records. Use RAS, but be sure to enter the appropriate (previous) year along with the module code.

Students repeating whole years B RPTFT

Students who are repeating a year, not just individual modules, i.e. they have not progressed to the next course block, will be in your SMO lists. Their mode of attendance will be RPTFT (repeat full time). They should be processed through SAS just like the rest of the students, but there is a complication: you have to ensure that their attempt number is reset to 1 because students repeating a whole year are classed as making a first attempt and their marks are not subject to capping.

Unfortunately (as explained in Part 1) SCIMS cannot do this for you B it cannot ignore the records it has of previous attempts. When you use SAS option 1b to generate assessment records, SCIMS will set their attempt to 2, 3 or even 4 whereas it should be 1. This is corrected by a separate program, but this program runs only once a day, so:

If you have students repeating a year you should prepare for the entry of their actual marks through SAS by generating the assessment records for the modules they have taken (SAS option 1b) at least a day in advance.

Use SAS option 1b for the module, but then close SAS without entering marks. The next day any RPTFT students= attempts will have been set to 1 and you will be able to process such students in the normal way.

The SMRU screen B Student Module Results Undo

The options in SAS and RAS that allow you to alter marks afer they have been converted to agreed marks give you access only to the marks of students with Held status, and then only to the marks that are causing them to be in Held status. Generally the held status will be caused by the module grade still being shown as EC or MP because one or more of the assessments still has that grade. Normally you will finalise these grades through SAS 9 or RAS 7, but there may be occasions when you need to alter other marks, ones that are not accessible to you in SAS or RAS. For example, sometimes you have to reduce all assessment marks to zero, as a penalty for serious academic misconduct i.e. assessments other than those for which you have entered the MP grade.

You might also need to override the SCIMS module mark calculation, not for students with EC or MP grades, but perhaps for students who are on a degree classification borderline or if the student has failed a module because of a qualifying assessment failure B guidelines issued by Academic Registry say that if a student=s module mark is greater than 34 but they have a qualifying assessment failure, their module mark should be set to 34. If it is left at a higher mark, the assessment record will be closed a the end of the year and you will not then be able to enter a reassessment mark. Use SMRU for all such changes.

14

The SMRU screen is like the SAS 9/RAS 7 screen except that nothing is greyed out B it gives you access to all agreed assessment or reassessment marks and grades, and to the module mark and grade. SMRU should therefore be used with extra care, and only when the simpler and safer SAS/RAS options will not allow the required operation.

SMRU will give you access to the marks of any student, with any status, and the first thing you have to do is select the students you need to work on. Bring up the SMRU screen, enter module details (year, code etc) to specify the module you want, and Retrieve (F5). You will see a list of all the students on the module, as in SMR, but at the right-hand end of each student=s record is a large red X. For each student you want to work on, click twice on the X to turn it first into a U them into an M. If you leave the U in place, you will simply remove (Undo) the student=s latest set of agreed marks. Instating the M not only removes the agreed marks but also allows you to enter new ones.

Note If there are many students on the module and only one or two you need to deal with, you can retrieve them individually by entering individual students= SPR codes in the Candidate key box before retrieving. Alternatively, if you have retrieved a large number of students in SMRU you can find individuals by searching for names or numbers B use the fields and green arrows at the bottom left of the screen (see illustration above).

Below the list of students is a green arrow, to action the changes for the selected students, but before you use this you must use the adjacent drop-down arrow to select To previous state (as shown above). The alternative (To SAS state) will wipe out any and all sets of reassessment marks.

When you click the green arrow you will be taken to a screen similar to the screen you see with option 9 of SAS, except none of the assessment marks and grades will be greyed out. In fact they will all be blank. In SMRU you should enter C in the Agree? box (not Y or N). This will copy the Current actual marks and grades into the boxes for agreed marks and grades and put your cursor in the box for the first of the marks. You can then click in or tab to any of the mark or grade boxes, clear that field, and enter whatever is required. As with SAS option 9, you can regenerate the module result (double click on the current module mark), enter a minute, and manage the reassessment allocations.

You must Store the changes before moving on. Unlike SAS option 9, you do not see a sequence of these screens for all the selected students. You must Store the changes for each student before closing the window, whereupon the window for the next student you have put an M against will appear. Stored changes will be reflected in the initial SMRU screen when you return to it, and will be visible in SMR the next time you use it.

15

16

Dealing with academic misconduct

If a student was suspected of misconduct, you will have entered a grade of MP for one or more assessments when you entered the actual marks in SAS or RAS. This grade will have been carried through to the module grade when you calculated the module result, and to the agreed assessment and module grades when you used TMR. How you transform the MP grade into a pass or fail grade depends on the decision reached by the Academic Conduct Officer or Panel about the case. Generally, if the decision involves manipulating only the assessment or assessments with MP grades you can do it though SAS 9 or RAS 7, but if you have to change marks for the other assessments in a module for which MP was not registered, which is a possible outcome of a disciplinary investigation, you will have to use SMRU as SAS and RAS will not give you access to these marks. In more complex cases, where the student may be awarded the credits for a module, but a zero mark, you will also have to liaise with the Examinations Office in Academic Registry as SCIMS is set up not to award credits if a module was failed, which a zero mark of course indicates.

Here are the decisions you may have to cope with, and what to do to sort out the agreed marks and grades. You should not alter actual marks or grades, of course B the instructions below explain how to set the agreed marks differently from the actual marks. As always, you must also enter a minute to explain why the agreed marks or grades are different from the actuals.

In the eight scenarios below, the text in quotes is the typical ruling of the Student Conduct Officer or Panel.

1. The allegation is rejected

AThe student is cleared of misconduct and the original assessment outcome stands.@

This means that the currently stored actual mark can be confirmed as an agreed mark and the module mark and grade can then be set. If the marks have been through TMR the MP grade will be causing a Held status, so use SAS 9 (or RAS 7 for a re-sit) to remove the MP agreed grade from the assessment. Clear the mark and retype it, then tab through and recalculate the module result (as described above for EC cases). Tab to the Minutes box and enter the minute, store then quit, or tab through to the next set of results if there are more held cases to deal with.

2. Work is remarked

AThe work is referred back to the examiner(s) who shall remark the work but discounting those sections that are deemed to involve plagiarism.@

The examiner will provide you with a new mark, but this is not a replacement actual mark, it is to be proposed to the examiners= meeting as an agreed mark. When the new mark has been accepted by the examiners you can enter this as the agreed mark for this assessment and recalculate the module result. After TMR, use SAS 9 or RAS 7 as appropriate, and tab to the field containing the old >agreed= assessment mark, clear it (F7) and enter the new agreed mark.

Tab through to the module result and recalculate (F2), tab to the minutes box and enter the minute and, if the student has now failed the module, tab through to the reassessment.

Store and quit or move to the next student as appropriate.

3. Agreed mark for the assessment reduced to zero, with normal reassessment

AThe allocation of a mark of zero for the assessment unit in question and with the normal consequences, if any, for reassessment. (The module mark should be capped at the minimum pass mark if it includes any reassessment.)@

If the student has now failed the module and this was a first attempt, the student will be allowed to resubmit the work or re-sit but the module mark will now be capped.

If the student has failed and this was a second attempt, they will now proceed to a third attempt, if allowed for this module.

If this was already the final attempt, and the module mark is now below the pass mark, the student will have failed.

If the student has achieved the pass mark for the module despite having this assessment mark set to zero, no reassessment will be allocated and the student retains the module mark achieved without this assessment.

Use SAS 9 or RAS 7, as appropriate, and tab to the assessment mark. Clear the field (F7) and enter a

zero. Tab to the module mark and recalculate (F2). Tab through to the Minutes box and enter the Minute. SCIMS has no automatic mechanism for capping

individual assessments, so when the resubmitted work is marked, and the actual mark is above the pass mark, after you have used RAS to enter the mark and set the module result, and used TMR again, you must use SMRU to reduce the mark for the assessment to the pass mark. Because there is no MP grade against the reassessment mark (assuming there was no need for such a grade this time) the mark will not be in a Held state so will not be accessible through RAS 7. For details of using SMRU see page 3.

If the student has failed the module, tab through to see the reassessment allocated.

Store and quit or tab through to the next held record.

4. Student asked to resubmit work as a first attempt (no capping)

AThe work has been rejected as unacceptable work and the student is permitted to submit new work to be classed as a first attempt. (There is no capping of the assessment unit mark or the module mark.)@

6. Agreed marks for all assessments set to zero, with normal reassessment (all units) and module mark capping

AThe allocation of a mark of zero for the module in question and with the normal consequences, for reassessment. (Setting the module mark to zero means setting all elements of assessment for the module to zero, whether first or reassessment. The module mark should be capped at the minimum pass mark if it includes any reassessment.)@

This applies only to misconduct in a first attempt assessment. Use SAS 9 and tab to the assessment mark. Clear the field and enter a zero.

Tab to the assessment grade, clear the field (F7) and enter A1.

Tab to the module mark and recalculate (F2). The agreed grade for the module will become A1.

Tab through to the Minutes box and enter the minute, then tab through to see the reassessment allocated and check it is at the correct attempt (1).Tab through to the next student or store and quit.

Note. This is different from 8 below, where all marks are set to zero, even the final reassessment marks. In this case, the student is being forced to re-sit all elements of assessment, even if misconduct was found in only one, but the reassessments will be processed in the normal way.

Note that if the student has failed other components the reassessment of these will also be classed as first attempts.

If a judgement like this were made in cases where the work was already a reassessment, you would use RAS 7 and enter A2 or A3 as the grade, to make the next re-sit have the same attempt number as the current one. This does not prevent mark capping but does give the student an extra attempt.

Implementing this penalty is relatively straightforward if you are dealing with a first attempt. If the module has only one assessment, you can use SAS 9, but if there is more than one assessment, and the student has at least one mark with the normal P or PR grades, you will have to use the SMRU. The procedure is given below, and the use of SMRU is described above.. 5. Student allowed to resubmit work as a

first attempt, but assessment mark will be capped (no capping of module mark)

AThe allocation of a mark of zero for the assessment unit in question and the student is permitted an opportunity to resubmit the same piece of work to be capped at the pass mark.@

If you are dealing with a reassessment, implementing this penalty is more difficult. You will have to take account of the rule that is built into SCIMS which says that if a student achieves a lower mark at reassessment than was achieved in a previous attempt, the previous mark, or the highest of all previous marks for the assessment, will be used in calculating the module mark. So, for reassessments in which misconduct has occurred, and has been penalised in this way, if you just reduce the reassessment marks to zero, SCIMS will revert to the marks for previous attempts, so you will also have to set to zero all the agreed assessment marks for all previous attempts at the module.

This decision applies only to first attempts, and makes sense only if all the other assessments in the module were passed. You will therefore be able to use SAS 9 to set the agreed mark to zero and allocate an A1 grade for the assessment (if it is already an A1 reassessment you can use RAS 7 and allocate a further A1 grade).

17

18

For a first attempt at a module with only one assessment use SAS 9 to set the agreed mark to zero; for anything else, use SMRU.

In SMRU, enter the module code, year, and >Candidate Key= which is the student number with /1 or /2 at the end (copy the full number from another screen if necessary) in the left-hand part of the SMRU screen and retrieve. You should see the current module marks and grades for the student.

Click twice in the X box at the right, so that the X changes to M (illustrated on page 3).

If you are dealing with a first attempt:

Against >Undo the selected SMRs back= click the drop-down arrow (not the green arrow) and if this was the first attempt, select >To previous state=. Now click the green arrow.

You will see a screen similar to the SAS 9 screen, but you should enter C in the Agree? box, which, when you tab out will cause the current actual marks to be displayed as agreed marks. You will be able to tab to each of them, clear with F7 and enter zero. As you tab through the grades they should become PR.

Tab to the module mark and recalculate (F2). It should show zero and the grade should be F.

Tab to the Minutes box and enter the appropriate minute. Tab down to generate the reassessments, store and quit.

If you are dealing with a reassessment you will have to go back and set to zero all the agreed marks for the previous attempt, so that SCIMS does not use these to calculate the module result. The only method available for you to do this will entail completely deleting any marks for reassessments, both actual marks and agreed marks, so make sure you have a note of the actual marks awarded for reassessments B you will need to re-enter these.

Retrieve the student=s current marks in SMRU as described above, and change X to M, but this time, in the drop-down menu against >Undo the selected SMRs back= select >To SAS state=. Now when you click the green arrow and enter C in the Agree? box you will see the first attempt agreed marks.

Tab through these setting each to zero, and follow the rest of the procedure as described above for first attempts. You will then have reset all the first attempt agreed marks to zero.

Now you need to re-enter the actual reassessment marks (which you made a note of, see above). Close SMRU and use RAS in the normal way to re-enter the marks.

In RAS you will find that SCIMS has allocated a reassessment for every one of the module=s assessments B because you set all the first attempt marks to zero. You can enter the actual marks (and any MP grades) that the student obtained for reassessments, but if the student was not actually reassessed on some components you will have to enter a zero for these.

Store, quit, calculate the module result, TMR, then use SMRU to set all the agreed reassessment marks to zero (use >To previous state= this time), and record a minute.

If the misconduct was detected in a second reassessment, you will have to repeat the above process to enter the next set of actual marks (RAS) and set the agreed marks for these to zero (SMRU).

Eventually, if the student does resubmit/re-sit all the assessments without further problems, you will be able to process a full set of marks that will determine whether the student passes or fails the module, and if the student passes, the module result will be capped by SCIMS in the normal way.

7. Agreed mark for the assessment set to zero, and any re-sit mark for that assessment is set to zero after module pass/fail has been ascertained

AThe allocation of a mark of zero for the assessment unit in question and if the student is permitted a reassessment opportunity it is for credit purposes only. (This means that the module mark will be derived from the other assessment units for the module. The module mark should be capped at the minimum pass mark if it includes reassessment.)@

The idea behind this ruling is that the student should not derive any benefit from the assessment unit, even if passed at re-sit. The student may, of course, not need to do a re-sit; the first attempt module mark may still be above the pass mark even after the agreed mark for the assessment in question is set to zero (if it was an assessment with a low weighting, perhaps, and no qualifying mark). However, if the student fails the module, whether as a direct result of losing this assessment mark or not, the re-sit mark for this assessment will be looked at to see if the student has passed at re-sit and then it will be reduced to zero. This may reduce the module mark below the pass mark, but the student will still receive the credits for the module if they would have passed without this penalty.

19

To set the agreed mark to zero, use SAS 9 or RAS 7 as usual, and recalculate the module result, add a minute, and tab through to the reassessment allocation if appropriate.

If the student has passed and does not need a reassessment, or is not allocated one because this was the final attempt, that is all you have to do.

If the student is allocated and undergoes a reassessment, enter the new mark through RAS, calculate the module results (RAS 5a) and check in SMR to see if the student has now passed the module.

Whether the student has passed or not, you still need to set the agreed mark for this reassessment to zero, in line with the ruling, and because in certain circumstances it could influence the module mark calculation if the student passes at the next attempt.

To set the agreed assessment mark to zero, use SMRU. Enter the module code, year and student number (as described in 6 above) and retrieve. Click on the X at the end of the student=s record twice, and select >To previous state= in the >Undo the selected SMRs back= box. Click the green arrow. Enter C in the >Agree?= box. Tab to the agreed mark for this reassessment, clear (F7) and enter the zero.

Tab to the module result and recalculate (F2). If the module result is now be below the pass mark, SCIMS will show a grade of F for the module and, when you tab down to the bottom of the screen, will allocate another reassessment if available. If the student did in fact fail the reassessment, that will be appropriate, but if the student actually passed this assessment you should stop SCIMS from allocating a reassessment by tabbing to the module grade box, clearing the F (with F7) and enter an FF grade. The FF grade is recognised by SCIMS as a signal that no further reassessment is to be allocated.

Tab to the minute box, enter the minute, and check, when you tab out, that a reassessment is or is not allocated as appropriate.

If the student has in fact passed at reassessment, but is now shown as having failed, you need to contact the Examinations Office to ask them to credit the student for the module.

8. All agreed marks set to zero, and all re-sit marks set to zero after module pass/fail has been ascertained

AThe allocation of a mark of zero for the module and the student is permitted a reassessment opportunity for credit purposes

only. (Setting the module mark to zero means setting all elements of assessment for the module to zero, whether first or reassessments. This means that a mark of zero will be recorded for the purposes of the degree algorithm and the transcript.)@

This is a more severe version of 6 above B all marks gained by the student, for all assessments in this module, are zeroised (actual marks and grades are left as set but agreed marks are all set to zero), and the student has to do a full set of reassessments (unless this was already the final attempt). The difference is that this time the agreed reassessment marks are all going to be set to zero. You will have to use the actual marks gained at reassessment to work out whether the student has passed, because the agreed marks will all be set to zero and the recorded module mark will be zero.

Initially this can be handled like case 6 above. Use SMRU to set all agreed marks for the first attempts to zero, or if the student has already done one or more reassessments remove all these agreed marks by rolling back to the SAS state B see 6 above, which also explains how to reinstate reassessment marks and set the agreed marks for them to zero. You must set every agreed mark to zero, or SCIMS will not accept a module mark of zero. In any case, when SCIMS recalculates the module mark, you may have to override the mark it comes up with, by using F7 and typing in a zero.

If reassessments are still available, the student will be allocated the full set, and you will have to enter the marks through RAS. You should take note of the module result SCIMS calculates from the actual marks to establish whether the student has passed the module (assuming there are no allegations of misconduct in the re-sits), and if so you should contact the Examinations Office to ensure the student receives the credits for the module, once the marks are approved. However, you should then proceed to set the agreed marks to zero B all of them B using SMRU. Recalculate the module result (overriding if necessary to obtain zero) and use the FF module grade to prevent further reassessments being allocated if the student has actually passed.

If the student fails some of the reassessments and still has a further reassessment attempt available, you should not use the FF grade so that the student will be allocated reassessments, but you will have to manipulate the reassessments allocated by SCIMS.

20

Because you have set all agreed marks to zero, SCIMS will automatically allocate a full set of reassessments, some of which will not be needed. When you tab out of the minutes box, the assessments will appear; click on the minus sign next to those that are not needed (because the student really passed this time) to delete them before storing.

When you have entered the marks for these further reassessments (through RAS) you will have to use SMRU again to zeroise the agreed marks, and apply FF if necessary. You will also have to calculate for yourself the module mark the student would have obtained B SCIMS will be unable to do this because the agreed marks for previous attempts at assessments are all zero; you will have to use the actual marks for assessments that were passed and combine them with the new actual marks (assuming no further misconduct) and ask the Examinations Office to award the credits if appropriate.

The FF grade

Normally, SCIMS will allocate reassessments to a student if the module has been failed and all available attempts have not been used up. If, for any reason, you need to stop SCIMS allocating reassessments to a student, you can do so by changing the module grade to FF. You may want to do this because the student has passed at re-sit, but as a result of previous misconduct you have had to change marks to zero, or the school may have decided that the module will not be offered when the allocated re-sits would have been taken. You can change the module grade in whatever screen you are using for mark/grade changes B SAS 9, RAS 7 or SMRU.

In all these screens, you can use the minus sign next to an allocated reassessment to remove it, as long as it is not the only reassessment. If a student is shown with an F grade for the module, SCIMS will insist on at least one reassessment being allocated if further attempts are available The only way to avoid this is to delete the F module grade and enter FF.