Online submission and marking: Exploring the student experience Anna Verges Humanities eLearning

Context Faculty/Schools drive to benefit from introducing online submission and marking – Facilitate further improvements in feedback quality – Increase student satisfaction with feedback and assessment quality (NSS, student complaints) – Administrative efficiencies

Evaluating …what ? Experiences (student, academic staff, administrative staff experiences) Effect on marking practices Effect on feedback quality Administrative economies & efficiency (end to end) Impact on student satisfaction Effects on innovation Image Source:

The student experience What do we know?

Evidence University of Glamorgan, Turn it in or Turn it off? A Pilot Project for Turnitin and Grademark Experience, 15 March 2010 University of Exeter, Online Coursework Management Evaluation, JISC Project 2012 University of Glamorgan, Assessment Diaries & Grademark, 2012 University of Huddersfield, Evaluating the Benefits of Electronic Assessment Management, JISC Project, July 2012.

Uni. Glamorgan 2010 Online questionnaires students across 4 faculties, 6 interviews Reported positive experiences – Convenient + no need to print – Teaches plagiarism – Easy to use – Confirmation of receipt, secure and reliable – Encourages to submit in advance – More detailed feedback Negative – Confusion interpreting Originality Reports – Technical: 24h for resubmission, internet dependent – Poor preview layout – Double work if also asked to submit hard copy

Univ. of Exeter (OCME, 2010) Evaluation of introducing end-to-end assessment systems - mainly indirect evaluation of student experiences from views of academic and admin staff – Staff discrepancies in perception of beneficiaries – Not to assume that all students will embrace online systems – Pedagogical benefit (24%) Small student population (n=24) – Easy or little confusing (31% each) – Same feedback quality or worse (45% and 26%)

Univ. Glamorgan/S.Wales (2012) 296 students – survey and focus groups Reported advantages: – Easy – Easily stored and accessed – Legibility – Student engagement with feedback (?) Reported disadvantages: – online access, reading on screen, no disadvantages Student suggestions for improvements – Clearer assessment criteria, quality, consistency, need for dialogue

Univ. Huddersfield (JISC eBeam) 2013 Survey (n=804) and focus groups. Student reported benefits: Easier to submit (convenience, avoid travel) Avoids printing –printer panic Confident that submissions were received Legibility Preference for privacy: digesting their marks on their own - not in class More detailed feedback Clearer feedback (rubric allows to identify areas to work on) Larger collection of feedback by students Effective visual feedback provided via diagnostic tools

UoM evidence Anecdotal evidence through Focus groups School of Education – Retention Fund project Online questionnaires

Issues explored Overall satisfaction with online submission and electronic feedback Electronic submission and return experiences Experience of e-feedback quality Comparison electronic vs. hand-written feedback

Student experience Method: Online survey Participants – Humanities wide UG and PG (n= 204) – History UG students(n=91) – BA Econ (n=71) Slightly different wording and questions asked

Overall satisfaction BA Econ Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statements: I would like to see an increase in the following in my learning at the University of Manchester

Overall satisfaction BA Econ

Overall satisfaction History

Overall satisfaction

Electronic submission Humanities-wide – Easiness

Electronic submission History – Easiness

Feedback Quality Humanities-wide

Feedback Quality

Comparing Overall preference (Humanities-wide)

Comparing Helpfulness(History)

Comparing Clarity (Humanities-wide)

Comparing Feedback collection and review (Humanities-wide)

Comparing Feedback review (History)

Comparing De-personalisation (Humanities-wide)

Findings Not dissimilar to findings from other studies – Overall student satisfaction (easiness, convenience, cost) – Preference for online submission and for feedback returned electronically – Perceived pedagogical added value: clarity, feedback quality, collection rates Students clear beneficiaries of electronic submission and feedback

Caveats & Puzzles Explored the student experience only Subjective: views, opinions Need to develop objective indicators Limitations on Hum-wide survey Range of factors can influence a comparison between feedback quality across years Discrepancies between staff/student views as regards feedback quality

References University of Glamorgan, Turn it in or Turn it off? A Pilot Project for Turnitin and Grademark Experience, Project Report 15 March 2010Project Report University of Exeter, Online Coursework Management Evaluation, Final Report, 2012Final Report University of Glamorgan, An Evaluation of Assessment Diaries and Grademark, Final Report, Webinar November 2012Webinar November 2012 University of Huddersfield, Evaluating the Benefits of Electronic Assessment Management, JISC Project, Project Brief, Interim Report (March 2012), Project Interim Report (September 2012).Project BriefInterim Report (March 2012)Interim Report (September 2012)