Led by Prof David Schultz, ITL Fellow 2021/22 and Professor of Synoptic Meteorology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Wednesday 3rd May 2023, 13:00-14:30, on campus

“How old is the Earth?” “Define homeostasis.” “Derive the wave equation.” “Solve this differential equation.” These types of questions are staples of many types of exams in science and engineering modules. These questions are the foundation of the module content, they are easy for the instructor to develop and mark, and they meet students’ expectations. In online exams, some of these questions can even be written in multiple-choice format, making marking even easier, if not completely automated.

These questions, however, are also prone to cheating by students, especially in online exams. Students can quickly google the answers or exchange answers via messaging apps. This problem has grown worse due to the lockdown and online assessments, even for courses that otherwise would not employ such types of assessments. Moreover, the ease of writing such questions often leads instructors to aim too low on Bloom’s taxonomy, falling short of the level descriptors in the UK Framework for HE Qualifications. Here, the risk is depriving students of the opportunity to learn the material at a deeper, more conceptual level and confirmation by students that assessments are a barrier rather than an opportunity for learning.

I envision a future where such assessments facilitate higher-level thinking skills and minimize the potential of cheating by the students. Doing so helps develop the skills in colleagues to support assessment. Attempts to improve assessment in this manner also allows for more creative and different types of assessments, even in exams that do not facilitate such creativity or diversity (e.g., multiple choice).

This was a follow-up from a lecture and discussion session held in April 2022. In this follow-up, the facilitator lead the attendees to develop their own multiple-choice questions.

Useful resources
A recording of the previous session 'How to Design Cheat-Proff Multiple-Choice Exams to Improve Higher-Level Thinking Skills' (April 2022) is available to view on the University video portal. Please remember to log in via the button on the top right in order to be able to view the video.

Led by Jennifer Rose SFHEA, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, Alliance Manchester Business School and Fellow of the Institute of Teaching and Learning

Tuesday 13th December 2022, 10:30-12:00, online

The Active Feedback workshop was a 90 minute workshop that shared the vital elements required to enable students to write their own feedback. This method of empowering students not only increases student agency but also is reusable for lecturers and has a proven track record in increasing feedback ratings. The workshop introduced participants to the latest research, shared the tools to be able draft instructions for active feedback assignments and participants experienced writing active feedback for themselves. When the workshop was presented at Leeds University Business School the Pro Dean for Student Education, Cathy Myles, said “Jenni did a fabulous job and I had great feedback from many staff about both the methodology and the delivery afterwards. The word ‘exciting’ was used a lot!”

Led by Dr Nick Weise SFHEA, Departmental Lead (Teaching & Learning Enhancement) and Academic Coordinator (Peer Support) in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty Lead (Student Experience & Inclusion) in the Faculty of Biology Medicine & Health, University Theme Lead (Student Success & Academic Development) and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Teaching & Learning at the University of Manchester

Wednesday 16th November 2022, 13:30-14:30, on campus

This session was a chance for colleagues to learn more about inclusive approaches to student-facing activity with a particular focus on provision of feedback. Participants learnt from a mixture of audio-visual presentation and listening to / interrogating the experiences of other attendees allowing them to make an action plan of things to keep doing or change moving forward. 

Led by Professor Dan Rigby, Professor of Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

Wednesday 9th November 2022, 13:00-14:00, online

Student dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback is a recurring problem.

Many students (say they) have a poor understanding of marking criteria and some only engage with the criteria ex-post, when engaging with staff regarding disappointment with their mark.

We reported on an initiative to increase student understanding of marking criteria in which first year UG students:

• mark sample essays prior to attendance at a writing/marking workshop.
• use the feedback structure they will receive on their subsequent essay
• can only book into a workshop if they have uploaded marks/comments into Bb

Led by Patricia Perlman-Dee, CFA, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Alliance Manchester Business School

Thursday, 7th July, 2022 – 12:00 - 13:00

Led by Dr Victoria (Vic) Nicholas, who is Associate Dean (Student Experience) in STEM at the Open University.

Friday, 17th June, 2022 – 10:00 - 11:00

This workshop covered how online assessment works at scale in the STEM faculty and include information about how the OU is tackling issues of academic conduct, equality, digital poverty and inclusion in this area.  The workshop covers some of the assessment principles and policy as well as the process used to handle large numbers of online assessment.

Dr Valeria Contronei-Baird, Senior Lecturer in the Williams Centre for Learning Advancement (WCLA) and the Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne 

Friday, 10th June, 2022 – 9:30-11:30

Assessment rubrics offer the benefit of the explicit assessment and feedback of student learning in business education. Assessment rubrics explicitly articulate the marking criteria and assessment standards while also providing students with consistent formative and constructive feedback ‘on’ and ‘for’ learning of knowledge and skills as a continuous process. This workshop introduced the steps for designing assessment rubrics that assess knowledge and skills that align with subject learning outcomes.

A recording of this session is available to view on the Video Portal. Please remember to log in via the button on the top right to be able to view the video.

Led by Dr Valeria Contronei-Baird, Senior Lecturer in the Williams Centre for Learning Advancement (WCLA) and the Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne  

Friday 27th May, 2022 - 09:30 - 11:30 

This workshop presented practical strategies to design effective assessment that align with the learning outcomes for a subject along with examples of a range of assessment designs and strategies.

A recording from this session is available to view on the University Video Portal. Please remember to log in via the button on the top right to be able to view the video.

Led by Professor David Schultz, Chair in Synoptic Meteorology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and ITL Fellow 2021/22

Friday, 29^th April, 2022 – 14:00 – 15:00 

David envisions a future where MCQ assessments facilitate higher-level thinking skills and minimize the potential of cheating by the students. Doing so helps develop the skills in colleagues to support assessment and allows for more creative and different types of assessments.

A recording of the event is available to view on the University video portal. Please remember to log in via the button on the top right in order to be able to view the video.

Led by Sally Hickson, Deputy Head of Student Operations, School of Health Sciences

Wednesday, 27^th April, 2022 – 10:00 – 11:00

This session explored how to improve the alignment of our assessments to the curriculum, so that students are more enthused to engage in an assessment that enables them to demonstrate their learning in more meaningful ways. It also explored authenticity and formative assessment for learning under the umbrella of constructive alignment. The session hoped to open the treasure chest of different forms of assessment for your students.

A recording of the event is available to view on the University video portal. Please remember to log in via the button on the top right in order to be able to view the video.

On Monday 10th February we were delighted to welcome Dr. Edd Pitt, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice at the University of Kent, to deliver our inaugural Open Lecture: 'Tackling the big issues of student satisfaction, transmission and passive recipience of feedback'. Colleagues from across the University attended this excellent and thought-provoking talk, and a recording is available to view online. 

Led by Professor Dan Rigby, Professor of Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

Thursday 26th October 2023, 12:00-13:00, online

Student dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback is a recurring problem.

Many students (say they) have a poor understanding of marking criteria and some only engage with the criteria ex-post, when engaging with staff regarding disappointment with their mark.

We reported on an initiative to increase student understanding of marking criteria in which first year UG students:

• mark sample essays prior to attendance at a writing/marking workshop.
• use the feedback structure they will receive on their subsequent essay
• can only book into a workshop if they have uploaded marks/comments into Bb

Led by Dr Chris Godden and Ushma Khadia

Wednesday 13th December 2023, 12:00-13:00, on campus - book via the University Training Catalogue  

In this digital capability seminar, Dr Chris Godden (History) and Ushma Khadia (Careers Service) will discuss

teaching and assessment work done in 2022/23 as part of a new undergraduate module, ‘Back to the

Future: The Uses and Abuses of History.’ This module focused on the study of applied history, and

knowledge about the past can be deployed to inform the development of responses to contemporary

issues. An innovative part of the assessment for this module was the use of the online interview platform,

shortlist.me, through which students submitted video applications to a ‘Lessons from History’ research

project.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

The seminar will cover:

(i) how this part of the assessment was developed

(ii) how it was set up within the context of the module

(iii) how students were supported in developing and delivering their video applications

(iv) lessons learnt from the project that will feed into the delivery of the module in 2023/24

Led by Dr James Brooks (Reader in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Academic Lead for Teaching Excellence and Quality) and Jenni Rose SFHEA (Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, Alliance Manchester Business School)

Thursday 14 December 2023, 10:30-12:00, on campus - book via the University Training Catalogue

Jenni and James talk about all things feedback, from students writing feedback for themselves, through using AI assistance into writing great feedback for students. If you want to improve feedback when you teach this is the one stop shop to book on to.

Led by Dr Valerie Contronei-Baird, Williams Centre for Learning Advancement (WCLA) at the University of Melbourne

Thursday 14th December 2023, 13:00-14:30, On campus - book via the University Training Catalogue  

In this session Dr Valerie Contronei-Baird, visiting UoM from The University of Melbourne, will share the work she and colleagues have been doing around (re)development of assessments in the context of challenges – and opportunities – such as increasing use of AI in education. This will include discussion of an approach which integrates elements of learner reflection, and will explore the design of appropriate and effective rubrics for assessing reflection.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

• Explain an approach taken to developing robust and valid assessments in the context of wider use of AI technology in education
• Discuss the key principles important in developing assessment rubrics for use when marking reflective assessments
• Explore how assessment rubrics can capture learners’ development in human-centric skills, such as teamwork, reflection, critical thinking and creativity

Led by Lisa McDonagh SFHEA (Teaching and Learning Officer, Institute of Teaching and Learning) and Dr Jen McBride SFHEA (Senior Lecturer in Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience and Academic Lead for Teaching Excellence and Quality)

Thursday 14 December 2023, 14:30-16:00, on campus - book via the University Training Catalogue

In this session we will consider how we give feedback to each other as colleagues, how we recognise and internalise this, and how we make use of it. This will include discussion of formal feedback such as that provided in peer observation and LEAP assessing, as well as the informal, discussion-based and day-to-day feedback that we may give and receive. What do we find useful? What impact do we feel our feedback may have on colleagues, and what's our goal in providing this? What are the professional and personal processes we go through when we experience peer feedback as staff?

This will be a discussion-based session, exploring key principles and sharing approaches; it will not include role play and you will not be asked to share any personal experiences of feedback that you do not wish to.

Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

• Understand the range of ways in which we may be asked to provide formal feedback to colleagues on their teaching and learning
• Understand the role and different forms of informal feedback between colleagues in the teaching and learning space, and the impact this can have
• Evaluate our personal drivers and the approaches we use when providing formal and informal feedback to colleagues
• Analyse how we notice, receive, interpret and act on the feedback we receive from colleagues
• Understand how we can make use of feedback in probationary, promotion and/or award processes