Sussex takes step forward on online submission and feedback of student coursework
A successful demonstration of the technology in action means the University has taken a significant step towards September’s goal of introducing electronic submission and feedback on student coursework.
The demonstration, to academic and professional services staff, shows the University remains firmly on track to meet its target that, from this coming academic year, first-year undergraduates submitting text-based coursework will be able to use the electronic system.
Professor Clare Mackie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), said: “This successful and well-received demonstration shows we have reached an important milestone in our phased implementation of electronic submission and feedback for coursework.
“Students have told us that enabling coursework to be submitted online will provide a significant improvement in their learning experience.
“Staff, both academic and administrative, welcome the opportunity that online submission provides to free up resources and to focus on more face-to-face contact to support students - something which can be difficult when workloads increase as assessment deadlines approach.
“Our plan is to implement this project step by step so we can learn from the experience and keep improving the service as we widen its scope.
“Coursework and feedback are essential parts of the teaching and learning process and their management is a significant part of schools’ administrative workload, so getting this right is essential.
“We are focussing on text-based materials and first-year undergraduates this year, though we are continuing to evaluate the best ways to extend the service to include artefacts and complex formulae and formal notation, all of which are more difficult to assess and mark in an online environment.”
The new service will be available from the start of the 2014-15 academic year. Students will be able to submit text-based coursework online and have their work automatically checked by the Turnitin text-matching service – enhancing safeguards against plagiarism and encouraging students to follow the best academic practice on citation of others’ work.
Staff will be able to mark work both online and offline to provide feedback directly to individual students via Study Direct.
The Technology Enhanced Learning team, led by Dr David Walker and Project Manager Catherine Jones, are undertaking an extensive programme of staff training to support the deployment of the electronic submission and feedback system.
Each school has an appointed Academic Champion to support the project locally on academic and related matters.
School Administrators have been working closely with the project team and Academic Registry colleagues to ensure that systems, policies and processes are redesigned to support the introduction of the new system.
Staff with queries are strongly encouraged to contact their school Academic Champion to find out more about the project and what it might mean for them.
The Academic Champions are:
- Business, Management and Economics: Dr Des Doran
- Education and Social Work: Duncan Mackrill
- Engineering and Informatics: Dr Paul Newbury
- English: Dr Lynne Cahill
- SCLS: Alison Chisholm
- Global Studies: Dr Anna Stavrianakis
- History, Art History and Philosophy: Dr Jim Endersby
- Law, Politics and Sociology: Dr Elizabeth Craig
- Life Sciences: Dr John Armstrong
- Mathematical and Physical Sciences: Prof Mark Hindmarsh
- Media, Film and Music: Dr Eleftheria Lekakis
- Psychology: Dr Alison Pike