Published on: 10/07/2023 · Last updated on: 03/09/2024
Introduction
The University supports a number of digital solutions and applications that can support the design and delivery of different assessment and feedback types. Use the drop-down menus below to explore recommended approaches for each assessment type. If you have questions please feel free to contact the TEL Team who will be happy to talk with you about your needs and potential digital solutions.
Examinations
General recommendations:
- Author questions within the assessment platform and provide students with the ability to answer their questions directly in the assessment platform (instead of uploading scripts). This will lead to fewer issues with student submissions and make it easier for online marking.
- Consider randomising questions and answers to ensure students do not receive the questions in the same order.
- Manage questions using the Question Bank following a naming convention (e.g. unit code – year or following local guidance) so questions can be revisited and improved, as well as reused, in subsequent years.
- Preview the assessment as students will view it on the assessment platform to check the design and content is as expected.
Inspera – closed book
Ease of use – Staff: Intermediate
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
For staff, some upskilling will be needed to determine and implement the most appropriate question type for what you are aiming to assess. Utilising features, such as random questions (mixed order and/or the system choose x questions out of y to give the students), stimuluses, sections, marking scheme, layouts, etc., will initially take some learning, but will lead to a more robust exam experience. Students will need to be provided guidance on how to access and use any assessment platform.
Note: the University does not current offer remote proctoring. A trial (in the School of Management) is underway to determine longer-term viability of closed-book Inspera exams on campus.
See further information including alternative technology options:
General recommendations:
- Author questions within the assessment platform and provide students with the ability to answer their questions directly in the assessment platform (instead of uploading scripts). This will lead to less issues with student submissions and make it easier for online marking.
- Consider randomising questions and answers to ensure students do not receive the questions in the same order.
- Manage questions using the Question Bank following a naming convention (e.g. unit code – year or following local guidance) so questions can be revisited and improved, as well as reused in subsequent years.
- Preview the assessment as students will view it on the assessment platform to check the design and content is as expected.
Inspera – open book
Ease of use – Staff: Intermediate
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
For staff, some upskilling will be needed to determine and implement the most appropriate question type for what you are aiming to assess. Utilising features, such as random questions (mixed order and/or the system choose ‘x’ questions out of ‘y’ to give the students), stimuluses, sections, marking scheme, layouts, etc., will initially take some learning, but will lead to a more robust exam experience. Students will need to be provided guidance on how to access and use any assessment platform.
General recommendations:
- Author questions within the assessment platform and provide students with the ability to answer their questions directly in the assessment platform (instead of uploading scripts). This will lead to fewer issues with student submissions and make it easier for online marking.
- Consider randomising questions and answers to ensure students do not receive the questions in the same order.
- Manage questions using the Question Bank following a naming convention (e.g. unit code – year or following local guidance) so questions can be revisited and improved, as well as reused in subsequent years.
- Preview the assessment as students will view it on the assessment platform to check the design and content is as expected.
Moodle (quiz and assignments)
Ease of use – Staff: Intermediate
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
Recommended workflows for Moodle quiz or Moodle assignment assessment options
For staff, some upskilling will be needed to determine and implement the most appropriate question type for what you are aiming to assess. Utilising features, such as random questions, sections, feedback, layouts, etc., will initially take some learning, but will lead to a more robust test experience. Students will need to be provided guidance on how to access and answer questions.
See further information including alternative technology options:
- Information and guidance on setting up a Moodle Quiz.
- NUMBAS is a University supported route for formative, or invigilated summative in-class tests and provides automated assessment of some maths content (it supports algebraic notation, question parameter randomisation).
- We are experimenting with CodeRunner (for automated assessment of computer code), STACK (for automated assessment of mathematic content). Contact tel@bath.ac.uk for more information.
- It may be possible to use Inspera for an In-Class test, contact inspera-support@bath.ac.uk to enquire.
Coursework
Moodle Assignment
An Essay assessment can be managed with a Moodle assignment submission point.
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
Moodle assignments are the most common activity set up in Moodle. These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
Recommended workflows for Moodle assignment summative and formative assessment
Moodle Assignment
Can be set up for both individual and group assessments. Using this activity, you can communicate tasks, collect work (e.g. poster) and provide grades and feedback to your students. Students can submit content in various forms including documents, spreadsheets, HTML or alternative formats.
Recommended workflows for Moodle individual assignment summative and formative assessment.
Recommended workflows for Moodle group assignment summative and formative assessment.
Moodle Group Peer Review
For assessed group work, a group assignment allows you to provide feedback and marks for the whole group. You can use the Moodle Group Peer Review tool to facilitate peer assessment of contribution to group work. This can help you to determine an individual mark for students, taking account of their peer assessed contribution to group work.
Recommended workflows for Group Peer Review summative and formative assessment
Ease of use:
- Beginner – Moodle assignments are the most common activity set up in Moodle. These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
- Advanced – Moodle Group Peer Review tool requires careful planning and familiarisation with guidance material, as well as scaffolding for students.
Moodle Assignment
A Dissertation assessment can be managed with a Moodle assignment submission point.
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
Moodle assignments are the most common activity set up in Moodle. These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
Recommended workflows for Moodle assignment summative assessment
Moodle Assignment
A reflective assessment can be managed with a Moodle assignment submission point.
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
Moodle assignments are the most common activity set up in Moodle. These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
Moodle assignments allow for anonymous marking and similarity checking
Recommended workflows for Moodle assignment summative and formative assessment
E-portfolio
An online collection of reflections and digital artefacts (such as documents, images, blogs, resumés etc.). Mahara is the supported, e-portfolio tool at the University of Bath. E-portfolios can be designed to help students develop their digital skills by sharing reflections in different formats e.g. video, learning journals, personal development planning. They have features to support group collaboration and feedback from staff and peers.
Ease of use – Staff: Advanced
Ease of use – Students: Intermediate
E-portfolios involve a significant learning curve for staff and students. Staff will need to undertake some training and practice, in advance of an introduction for students.
Moodle Assignment
Using this activity, you can communicate tasks, collect work (e.g., problem sheets or in-tray exercises) and provide grades and feedback to your students. Students can submit content in various forms including documents, spreadsheets, HTML or alternative formats.
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
Moodle assignments allow for anonymous marking and similarity checking.
It can be set up for both individual and group assessments
Recommended workflows for Moodle assignment summative and formative assessment.
Moodle quiz
It is a powerful activity that allows you to create exercises ranging from simple, multiple-choice knowledge tests to complex, self-assessment tasks with detailed feedback.
Ease of use – Staff: Intermediate/Advanced
Ease of use – Students: Beginners/Intermediate
Feedback obtained from this activity can help students to identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
Quiz statistics can help tutors identify concepts that students find difficult, or where misunderstandings have occurred. Future teaching can be adapted accordingly.
Recommended workflows for Moodle quiz summative and formative assessment.
Numbas
It is a maths assessment platform where you can author questions and students’ responses are auto marked by the system. NUMBAS allows the randomisation of question parameters so students can work on different instances of the same problem.
Ease of use – Staff: Advanced
Ease of use – Students: Advanced
The MAST group at the Skills Centre (a branch from MASH) offer support to academic departments interested in developing mathematical content for students applying this tool.
Moodle Assignment
Moodle Assignments can be set up for both individual and group assessments. Using this activity you can communicate tasks, collect work (e.g. poster) and provide grades and feedback to your students. Students can submit content in various forms including documents, spreadsheets, HTML or alternative formats.
For assessed group work, a group Moodle Assignment allows you to provide feedback and marks for the whole group.
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
This is a commonly used activity in Moodle and familiar to most staff and students. Assignments are straightforward to set up, and for students to submit digital files.
The ‘group’ assignment functionality may be less familiar and will require some additional training for staff. Groups will need to be set up within Moodle, requiring some manual set up.
Recommended workflows for Moodle individual assignment summative and formative assessment.
Recommended workflows for Moodle group assignment summative and formative assessment.
Moodle Group Peer Review
Moodle Group Peer Review can be used in conjunction with Moodle Assignment tool to facilitate peer assessment of contribution to group work. This can help you to determine an individual mark for students, taking account of their peer assessed contribution to the project output.
Ease of use – Staff: Advanced
Ease of use – Students: Intermediate
This is not a commonly used tool and will require some additional training for staff to set up appropriately.
Students will need to be provided with guidance on appropriate levels of scoring and commenting.
Recommended workflows for Group Peer Review summative and formative assessment.
e-Portfolio
An online collection of reflections and digital artefacts (such as documents, images, blogs, resumés etc.). Mahara is the supported, e-portfolio tool at the University of Bath. E-Portfolios can be designed to help students develop their digital skills by sharing reflections in different formats e.g. video, learning journals, personal development planning. They have features to support group collaboration and feedback from staff and peers.
Ease of use – Staff: Advanced
Ease of use – Students: Intermediate
E-Portfolios involve a significant learning curve for staff and students. Staff will need to undertake some training and practice, in advance of an introduction for students.
Moodle Assignment
A portfolio assessment can be managed with a series of Moodle assignment submission points. You will need to provide a clear timeline of assessment points and feedback opportunities in advance and show how submissions are related. Moodle assignments allow for formative feedback from staff (not from peers).
Ease of use – Staff: Beginners
Ease of use – Students: Beginners
Moodle assignments are the most common activity set up in Moodle. These are straightforward, for staff to use and for students to submit.
Moodle assignments allow for anonymous marking and similarity checking.
Recommended workflows for Moodle individual assignment summative and formative assessment.
Moodle Assignment
Coursework can be submitted through Moodle Assignment.
Recommended workflows for Moodle individual assignment summative and formative assessment.
Panopto
For videos, podcasts or narrated presentations (especially over 50mb) students can submit their work via the Panopto student assignment folder. Staff should create student assignment folders to securely store students’ recorded presentations. Students can create these using a variety of software, such as PowerPoint, Panopto, Zoom, Teams, or on mobile devices. Video editing can also be done using basic editing software in Panopto or students’ own video editing software on their personal devices,
Recommended workflows for Panopto summative and formative assessment.
Ease of use – Staff: Intermediate
Ease of use – Students: Intermediate
Guidance should be provided to students on how to use the various forms of technology. Students should be provided with instructional guidance on the different ways to produce their presentations (such as with a narrated PowerPoint or Panopto for videos, or PowerPoint or Xerte for presentations).
Panopto
Any recordings should be saved to the University’s recommended storage areas (e.g. a Panopto assignment folder), not in personal storage spaces such as OneDrive.
Recommended workflows for Panopto summative and formative assessment.
If carried out live in front of a small group, technology may not be needed. If carried out in a bigger group, audio visual equipment, such as a microphone or PowerPoint, may need to be incorporated. Staff may need to record presentations to provide evidence to external examiners. Recordings should be uploaded to a secure storage area (i.e., a Panopto assignment folder).
Ease of use – Staff: Beginner
Ease of use – Students: Beginner
Alternative technology options
Zoom or Teams can be used for live, but not in-person, presentations.