Posted: Friday 11th November 2016
Author: Claudia Cox
Things have been quiet on the development blog, but that's because the project team has been so busy - training is well underway and we've had lots of preparations to make for our winter examinations period coming up in December and January! We're removing ourselves from the fray very briefly to bring you an update on how the implementation of WISEflow in the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences is going:
Training Stats
Training sessions for staff have initially been challenging, but we feel that we've now settled into a good routine with them. We currently have 4 different hour long WISEflow training sessions aimed at academic and administrative staff, each with a different focus:
- Setting up an assessment in WISEflow and managing its settings
- Marking and grading online in WISEflow
- Creating exam content in WISEflow
- Using WISEflow to manage Postgraduate Research submissions
Sessions are optional and are restricted to a maximum of 15 attendees in order to ensure that everybody can be given a reasonable amount of attention if they need extra guidance or have questions, and we like to have at least one SALT (Student Associate Learning Technologist) on hand to assist and raise awareness about the additional support resources available to staff. We've conducted 8 training sessions for approximately 80 members of staff since the end of September, and have 4 more scheduled before the University closes for the Christmas period.
In addition to our group training sessions, we also offer bespoke one-to-one or smaller scale discussions for staff members who want to gain a more in depth understanding of specific processes in WISEflow. We've had 14 of these more specialist sessions since September, and typically there is little overlap with staff who attend a group training session.
Assessments Migrating to WISEflow
We're pleased to announce that only 2 months into the 2017/8 academic year, we already have assessments set up in WISEflow for just under 20% of all modules* being taught in the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences. Below is a breakdown of the modules in WISEflow by department:
| Dept. |
% in WISEflow |
No. of modules in WISEflow |
% of total modules |
No. of total modules |
| Computer Science |
38.8% |
42 |
82.3% |
51 |
| Electronic/ Computer Engineering |
23.1% |
25 |
17.6% |
142 |
| Mechanical/ Aerospace Engineering |
21.2% |
23 |
15.2% |
151 |
| Civil/ Environmental Engineering |
10.1% |
11 |
14.1% |
78 |
| Design |
4.6% |
5 |
10% |
50 |
| Maths |
1.8% |
2 |
2.6% |
76 |
| |
|
108 |
|
548 |
*this excludes study blocks, which do not have any assessments associated with them.
As you can see, the Computer Science department has benefitted from a significant advantage due to being the key focus of the digital assessment project in the previous academic year. You may also have noticed that some departments account for quite small percentages of the total. We're hopeful that as these areas enjoy the same level of support that was offered to Computer Science, their numbers will increase - but we are not anticipating (nor aiming) for all departments to rise to 100% in the immediate future.
It is crucial that the use of WISEflow is only implemented where it is appropriate to do so, and if the assessment in question involves the submission of a physical prototype or extensive use of mathematical formulae and notations this may not always be feasible. However, we are confident that the majority of assessments can be conducted in WISEflow and are excited to look at the scope of the project again at the end of 2017/8 for comparison.