Cadmus: Transforming assessment

Cadmus supports the entire assessment cycle, from design to grading, and enhances the student learning experience while ensuring academic integrity. 

Register for training 

Training sessions for Cadmus will be offered ahead of Semester 1 and again for Semester 2. Support from your Faculty’s e-learning team will also be in place. 

• Join our Teams space for updates and register your interest in training. 

Meet Cadmus   

Cadmus representatives will be present at this week's Teaching and Learning (T&L) Conference on June 26 and 27. If you have tickets to the conference, visit their exhibitor stand, attend the panel discussion, or drop by their fringe session to learn more about how Cadmus can transform your assessment practices.  

Cadmus representatives will also be available on campus to answer any questions you have about using Cadmus for your assessments for 2024/25 (open to all staff). As well as offering 1-1 drop-in sessions, they will be delivering two demo sessions and a talk entitled "Let's talk about your assessments".  

• Sign up here to reserve a time slot to come and talk to the team. 

Why Cadmus? 

Cadmus has shown remarkable results during its pilot phase, involving 104 course units across the University. Key outcomes include: 

• Academic Integrity: Enhanced assurance in online environments. 
• Student Experience: 90% of students rated their experience as good to excellent. 
• Inclusivity: Improved equality of opportunity for diverse student cohorts.
• Positive Feedback: 97% of academic colleagues gave a positive experience score and expressed a desire to continue using Cadmus. 

Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, says: “Cadmus is an important part of the University of Manchester’s investment in improving our assessment practice and experience for students and staff alike.  

“Cadmus supports our students and staff in moving away from seeing assessment as a separate, one-off event, and towards integrating it fully as part of learning.” 

While using Cadmus is not mandatory, the platform offers significant benefits. It supports our strategic priority to enhance assessment and feedback, as highlighted in our recent Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submission. Cadmus improves and supports professional services colleagues’ administration around assessment. Feedback from both staff and students during the pilot has been overwhelmingly positive. 

One student said: “I loved the layout and formatting of Cadmus, and it was so helpful having all the instructions separated out into a step-by-step checklist. This made the workload so much more manageable, and I knew exactly what I had to do to complete it.” 

Senior Lecturer, Dr Ben Chapman from the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health an early adopter, shares: “I have used Cadmus in a variety of settings, from in-course assessments to asynchronous exams to a recent in-person, bring your own device exam. Cadmus is a very usable piece of software, with a slick interface and illuminating analytics. Student feedback has been good and the functionality in bring-your-own device exams has been particularly impressive. 

“The experience was wholly positive – fantastic support from the Cadmus team, a more authentic experience for students, and streamlined marking for staff.” 

Join the Cadmus Community 

• For further details, please visit our Teams space or read the full ITL Case Study.  

Let’s work together to make assessment a seamless and enriching part of the student journey.