Electronic Management of Assessment (i.e. Electronic Submission, Marking and Feedback) offers the opportunity to streamline administrative processes and improve the quality of feedback that students get on their assessed work. This session explored both the advantages and broader issues surrounding the use of EMA and the important factors that you need to consider to make this a success. There was an opportunity to learn from the experiences of your colleagues who have recently introduced EMA at departmental level.

1. #Telfest
Sarah Moga
Undergraduate Administrator
Politics
Electronic Management of
Assessment
#Telfest

2. Department of Politics
Essay submission Prior to September 2014
• 2 paper copies of essay submitted to UG office
(anonymous)
• 1 electronic copy submitted to Turnitin for
plagiarism check (not anonymous)
• Handwritten feedback and a copy of essay
collected by student from UG office
• 1 paper copy of essay and feedback retained in
department

3. Department of Politics
Main Challenges
1. Convincing academic staff
2. Using Turnitin anonymously
3. Students being able to declare specific learning
difficulties (to replace yellow stickers)
4. Students to declare the work they had
submitted was not plagiarised

4. Department of Politics
Essay Submission Template

5. Department of Politics
Setting up the links on Turnitin

6. Department of Politics
How We Communicated the Change to Students
• Handbook
• Full set of instructions with screen prints
• Training sessions
• Video
• Numerous emails
• Notes on link in Turnitin

7. Department of Politics
What Went Wrong?
1. Students did not follow our instructions
2. We tried to make Turnitin fit our paper
submission procedure

8. Department of Politics
Upload Instructions
Enter your REGISTRATION
NUMBER, MODULE NUMBER AND
QUESTION NUMBER in the box
marked SUBMISSION TITLE. (e.g.
140000000, POL111, Question 3)

9. Department of Politics
What We Changed
• Students to submit work using their registration number only in the
submission title box
• We no longer check who hasn’t submitted until all essays have been
marked and de-anonymised
• We make it the students responsibility to ensure they have uploaded
correctly
• We allow the student to submit their essays to Turnitin multiple times up
to the 12.00noon deadline
• We no longer download all the essays in bulk after marking is complete

10. Department of Politics
Applying Late Penalties

11. Department of Politics
Benefits
• Happier students who don’t have to pay to print work
• No more queues in the office to hand in or collect work
• No more disputes as to day/time work was submitted
• No more filing of essays and assessment sheets
• No boxes with copies of students work to store
• Students can read the typed feedback
• Work is shared electronically with External Examiners
via Google, cutting down on postage and the possibility
of work getting lost in transit

12. Department of Politics
NSS Results for Assessment and Feedback
• 2015 satisfaction rate = 76%
• Now 5th in Russell Group
• Up from 17th in 2014

13. Department of Politics
External Examiners Comments
‘The introduction of online submissions, the use of Grade mark across
the programme and the move to a ‘Google Shared Drive’ facility for
external examining have significantly enhanced the external examining
process arrangements; the department and University are to be
commended for it. While I am aware that such transitions can be
difficult and the technology can seem temperamental when such
changes are implemented, I experienced no problems at all. In fact, the
entire process was effortless for me’.
Prof Cathy Gormley-Heenan - University of Ulster

14. Department of Politics
My Top Tips
• Understand exactly what Turnitin can do, its good points
and its limitations
• Be prepared to accept it’s not perfect and you can’t
change it
• Work your essay submission procedure around Turnitin
and be prepared to change what you do