External Examiners Project Update Anne-Marie O’Mullane Academic Policy Officer, Academic Services 13 May 2015

Focus of Presentation New External Examiner Online Reporting System Academic Response Coordinator Role Making the best use of data

New Systems External Examiner Reporting System (EERS) and Business Information Aim of system: The delivery of an online external examiner reporting system. The generation of online responses to external examiners. The delivery of IT tools to facilitate the extraction of common themes from the reports at School level, College level and at the Institution level. Link to EERS: Channel Available on MyEdwww.eers.is.ed.ac.uk BI Suite Reporting performing thematic analysis: Reporting and Analytics Channel on MyEd User Guides available on Student Systems webpages:

New Online Report Form

Academic Response Coordinator

Academic Response Coordinator Role Relevant section of policy: “A senior person responsible for teaching and quality assurance matters, designated by the Head of School, will take responsibility for responding to each External Examiner report by a deadline specified by the Senatus Quality Assurance Committee. This response should demonstrate that the University has given full and serious consideration to the comments made and indicates the actions that will be taken or not taken as a result of the comments.” How this operates in practice: Academic Response Coordinators: Views report and responds to report via EERS, can take into consideration feedback from Readers when crafting response School Key Contact allocates Academic Response Coordinator based on existing practice or on advice of colleagues and Readers to individual External Examiner Reports Deadline for return of response after receipt: 6 weeks Advantages: no cascade issues One Academic Response Coordinator per report Readers who are allocated to specific reports, will be notified once a report is submitted

Other Roles in the System School Key Contact: Monitors reports, allocates Academic Response Coordinators and Readers to reports, allocates other key contacts to manage reports Key Contact: Monitors reports, allocates Academic Response Coordinators and Readers to reports College Key Contact: Monitors reports and allocations, chases late reports (offline) College Contact: May have read access of college reports or can perform same functions as College Key Contact Readers: Allocated to specific reports, will be notified once a report is submitted General Readers: May view the submitted report at any time

Making best use of data BI reports and Infospaces allow for: - Quick and efficient analysis of report data which includes the External Examiner report data and responses -Analysis can be performed at School, College and University level in order -Ability to analyse themes and subthemes -Ability to monitor External Examiner processes and QA processes Why? Improve QA processes, take action on matters taking into consideration EE data, e.g. changing policies or processes, identifying and sharing good practice, ultimately improve the student learning experience

Contacts Queries on policy and business process queries: Anne Marie O’Mullane/Claire Edminson, Academic Services Ext Systems issues: Support Team, Student Systems Training/User guides: Jon Taylor, Training & Communications, Student Systems