Education Officer Blog

Hey everyone! 

A quick mid-week update! 

• Inspera – Last Friday (6th Nov) an email was sent out where it briefly mentioned that the use of Inspera for Semester One assessments had been finalised. Very quickly concerns were raised over privacy concerns with remote invigilation being an open on the Inspera website. Our Academic Reps did a fantastic job collating your views and raising them with me.  
  On the 9th November I had a phone call with Peter Lambert (Pro-Vice Chancellor of Learning and Teaching) who reassured me that the remote invigilation option had not been purchased and this software had been previously trialled with School of Management and it was very well received. I was also told you would not need to install any software on your own personal device, you will be asked to access Inspera through a web page just like Moodle. Previously Moodle had been used for exams, this wasn’t possible this year, Moodle is not an exam platform therefore using it runs the risk of it crashing (no one wants that to happen whilst you’re in an exam), Inspera is a specialist online exam platform.  
  You should have received an email from Peter Lambert on Monday evening answering some of the key concerns.  
  On Tuesday (10th Nov) I had a meeting with the Academic Director from the Centre for Learning and Teaching and the Inspera Implementation Manager, I raised concerns such as privacy, late implementation, and lack of communication. I was reassured that the Inspera packaged purchased means that the web page would not use or ask for webcam, microphone or screen recording privileges. They ran through the site and showed me some of the different features, and how simple it was to use. They are hoping to be releasing videos shortly over how this site works and talk through some of the features, we will keep lobby to make sure these get sent out to you as soon as possible. We also discussed about how accessibility and DAPs had been considered. Moving forward the SU will be involved in discussions on how Inspera is used and its implementations.  

• Faculty Rep Training – Tuesday evening we had our faculty rep training. You will have probably already met these fantastic student leaders as they’ve already done some incredible student engagements. We talked about key issues such as exam parameters, no detriment and workload that have been cropping up. I am excited to continue working with the faculty reps this year and to see what issues arise through the faculty forums they will be facilitating.  You can find your faculty rep here.

• Self-Certification of extensions for assessments – Over the last few weeks we’ve been having conversations with Peter Lambert, Registry and some of the Associate Deans on whether at Bath we could introduce the option to self-certify for extensions to run alongside the current extension policy. Several other universities successfully run this, such as Warwick, UCL, Royal Holloway, Bristol etc. Bath is behind the sector. This is still in the discussions phase as we try to establish if it is something that students want to be able to have the option to do here at Bath? Whether this would support students or hinder DoS from identifying who needs further support? How many days would be suitable amount for the extension? How many times should a student be able to self-certify? To name a few. Academic Reps have done a fantastic job at sharing around a survey on this which will allow us to present the findings to senior management at our next meeting.  

• Meeting with Senior management on the SU Top Ten – The Officer Team met with Senior management to discuss what we want the outcome to be from our top ten issues. We were able to identify key areas where progress needs to be made and identify the key stakeholders that will need to be involved.  

• Virtual Mixers – On Wednesday evening at 6pm we launched our first virtual mixer! It was great to meet some of you and be challenged to a game of Pictionary. One thing I learnt was it is extremely hard to draw Peppa Pig on a computer in 80 seconds.. We will be hosting these virtual mixers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6pm on Teams so if you fancy coming along sign up through the what’s on page here.

The rest of the week looks just as exciting! I’m meeting with some of the Bath Spa Officers to talk about their decolonising the curriculum campaign and I also have a working group on IMCs where we will be discussing the purpose and how they can be tailored to best support students.  

But best of all – Friday 1-2pm We will be hosting a Q&A with Senior Management to discuss the latest government guidance on how to safely allow students to go home for Christmas and plans for 2021 - SIGN UP HERE

Like always, if you have any questions drop me a message!  

Stay safe!  

Annie 

SU Education Officer