Posted on Wed 10 Apr 2019 at 10:34 by
Jack Kitchen
What we have been working on this year
It’s been an incredibly busy year so far and I’m really proud of all the work we’ve done, but here are some of the highlights:
Errors and other issues in exams
In Staff-Student Liaison Committees last year, students raised an issue of the accessibility of exams for our international student community – particularly the use of British brands and acronyms (such as ‘TfL’). This prompted wider discussions around exams, and a significant number of our Academic Reps reported that they had experienced errors or other issues in their exams.
The issues reported had a significant impact on students’ ability to complete the exam, including impossible multiple choice questions, illogical answers to STEM questions and unreadable graphs.
Students also raised that the University’s formula booklet, last updated in 2005, contained a number of errors.
What have we done so far?
- Around 65 students completed a student-led survey, capturing errors in January 2019
- This information was presented to the University’s senior management, and assessments reported were investigated by departments
- Our Faculty Representatives have raised the issue at several Faculty committees, starting discussions about how this can be addressed when it occurs, and minimised in the future
- Going forward, exam errors will be reported centrally to the University Learning, Teaching & Quality Committee and staff should, in future, clearly communicate any actions following reporting of an error
- Academic Registry (which administers the exams) are looking into how we can formalise the reporting process of suspected errors – in addition to Academic Reps emailing Directors of Studies
Other projects relating to assessments:
The SU has been campaigning for transparency into scaling for the past 4 years. Scaling is the process whereby staff use their academic judgement to ensure grades are an accurate reflection of a cohort’s ability. Papers are currently going through the University committee structure for approval, and we hope that from June 2019, there will be full transparency into occurrences of scaling at the University. If our project is successful, emails will automatically be sent to affected students by SAMIS, explaining the academic rationale behind the change of grades. Scaling isn’t a valid ground for an academic appeal – but for years students have asked for transparency into an otherwise very opaque process.
Curriculum Transformation is the other buzzword going around the University at the moment, and I’ve worked with the University to make sure that students’ voices are listened to, and valued, when designing our new courses. There’ve been dozens of focus groups, surveys and other interactions with students over the past year – and as a member of the ‘Curriculum Transformation Committee’, it’s been exciting to see how this feedback has been acted on – one course has seen a reduction in assessment by 2/3rds!