Category: Experiences

Experience of EMA: Luisa Ciampi (SPA) Role: Senior Programme Administrator   Previous experience of electronic management of assessment: I have worked in seven different departments across the university in an administration capacity and each department has previously dealt with assessment differently which means a lot more learning is required on all fronts should one ever work outside more than one department. It has also been my experience that this varying practice makes it more difficult to efficiently support staff - both administrative staff and academic staff – and students because there is a lot of room for misinformation and incorrect communications.   What I like about EMA: The standardisation and therefore transparency of all sorts of processes linked to EMA really supports the administration teams in terms of being clear on what is required, but also in terms of being able to provide accurate and helpful information to the various people that they work with. As a manager of a team of 10 people and 5 departments,...

Experience of EMA: Sophie Harrington Role: Student, BA English Literature   Previous experience of electronic management of assessment: Before EMA modules, my assessments consisted of one large piece of work handed in at the end of a module, which thus led to an intense, highly pressurised period at the end of every term. Before being able to receive my grades online, I had to travel onto Campus on a specific day at a specific time to receive my results. This was inflexible and time-consuming, and must have been particularly annoying for the students who don’t live in the Reading area—especially if they had no classes that day yet had to travel in simply to pick up feedback.   What I like about EMA: It has really enhanced my learning experience. In fact, it is the modules that have used EMA that I feel most accomplished in. With EMA, assessments can take the format of shorter, more regular pieces of work. Rather than one larger piece of work handed...

Experience of EMA: Dr Nicola Abram   Role: Lecturer in Literatures in English   Previous experience of electronic management of assessment: I’ve been using an online Learning Journal as a method of assessment on my Part 3 modules (‘Black British Fiction’ and ‘Global Literatures: Translation as Theme and Theory’) since Autumn 2015. The format of the Learning Journal has evolved over the years, in response to students and in consultation with colleagues. What began as a spiral-bound paper file now makes use of the ‘Journals’ tool on Blackboard. I’ve written in detail about using online Learning Journals as a mode of assessment on the UoR teaching and learning blog, ‘T&L Exchange’.   What I like about EMA: It’s portable! The old paper learning journals were huge, and heavy, especially after students stuck in clippings and print-outs to demonstrate their independent learning. This made it very difficult to take the batch home to mark – and was even worse for colleagues who commute. Now I can mark anywhere, and the...

Experiences of EMA: Stephanie Sharp Role: Lecturer BA Ed (QTS) with English Specialism   Previous experience of electronic management of assessment: Limited... Previously, marking an assignment was completed on a Word Doc. rubric, with lengthy positive feedback in a narrative form, with points for development.  This meant downloading and saving the essay into a file, then having two screens open (one to read the essay and one to mark the rubric), moving between one and the other. Mark sheets were completed on Excel, essays and feedback sheets were then cut and pasted into a file on the shared drive. I found this labour intensive and know that this was also a lengthy process for the admin team.   What I like about EMA: Being able to see and mark the essay online, without moving back and forth between documents to write comments Being able to write quick statements on the essay to demonstrate a point more effectively I like being able to see what the marking ‘looks like’ overall on...