Project report: online assignment management

Chris Coe, e-learning advisor with IT Services, has been investigating the possibility of creating a system that will help administrators, teachers and students with managing assignments. We've found that this is very important, both to students and to staff. Improving efficiency and eliminating confusion has obvious benefits. Chris has talked to many people around the University, including academics and administrators. She has gathered together her findings to give an interim report on what she has found.

What is "online assignment management"?

An electronic, online approach to managing the student assignment process. Not just assignment submission, not just feedback, not just plagiarism detection, but a joined-up and comprehensive process. A dislocated and confusing system has been shown to have a negative impact upon the student learning experience. For example, by returning qualitative feedback (comments and advice) later than quantitative feedback (marks), students may feel a demoralising sense of injustice. A good, clear, timely and consistent system will enhance student learning. For example, in most cases, if we can get feedback returned to the student quickly, it gives them more of a chance to review their own work while it is still fresh in their minds. We might also wish to add further options: we could get each student to review their essay and its feedback at a later date.

Do we already have this?

No, we haven’t got a single consistent system that is used across the university. We have some parts of it, for example, Chris Coe has helped many departments to set up basic online assignment submission using Formsbuilder (part of the Sitebuilder web publishing tool). As the vast majority of teachers and students now use web based systems every day, an online assignment management system has become widely acceptable and desirable.

About the project

The initial aim of the project is to get a comprehensive understanding of what would be required to create a system that meets the needs of students, teachers and administrators, both now and in the future (considering new technologies including smart phones and tablet devices like the iPad). There has been much to learn about how departments already successfully manage what is a large-scale and sometimes complicated process.

What has been found so far?

The project has uncovered a range of desirable features. From the student’s perspective, they need to:

• Know, in a timely fashion, the assignments that are required for their studies (for each of the modules), and the dates for submissions. In one place!
• Know and understand the rules and regulations relevant to each assignment.
• Be able to reliably submit their assignments in the correct place, on time.
• Know when to expect a marked assignment to be returned.
• Know about problems with an assignment (e.g. a plagiarism query).
• Be able to request an extension if required.
• Be able to view their marks and qualitative feedback as soon as possible, in relation to their submitted essay.
• Be able to view their past assignments and feedback, in such a way as they can review and learn from previous work.
• Be able to review past assignments with tutors (online or in tutorials).

Teachers (when assessing an essay) need to be able to:

• Know which assignments they should expect, how many to expect and when they will arrive and need to be returned.
• Have timely and simple access to assignments that are ready to mark, on campus and off-campus.
• Have access guidance and support as required (static and discursively from other teachers).
• Be able to mark electronically if they wish (adding comments to the electronic version of the student’s assignment).
• Be able to submit an assignment for analysis by the Turn It In plagiarism detection system.
  
• Be able to compile marks and feedback into an appropriate online form or grade book.
• Be able to give audio or video feedback if desired.
• Be able to review and amend marks and feedback until they decide to finalise the marks.
• Be able to record and view their own process in marking assignments.

In addition, there may be "workflow" requirements that should be automated, passing essays on to second markers, or allowing marks to be compiled and checked before they are released. Finally, other specified members of staff might also need to be able to access a student's assignments and marks, for administrative or support purposes (e.g. personal tutor).

Tell us what you think.

We very much welcome feedback on these findings, and suggestions for things to consider and investigate.

Robert O'Toole : 10 Jan 2011 15:44 |  Tags: Projects |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem