Time invested is high for e–learning materials.

Various diagnostic assessments were created as above to test study skills.
Due to illness with the link person at the college, and with students having difficulties accessing resources at UWIC, these tests were not available for use as early in the term as would have been ideal. In addition, a planned visit to UWIC by the students from the FE partner did not occur, which meant that an opportunity to demonstrate the range of material and assessments was lost. In terms of ‘critical moments’, it is clear that having plans in place and ready to hit the ground running is essential.
Despite these drawback, the result of these tests led to project members attending a meeting with the students to try and address some of the issues that had been identified.

4. 120 questions (multiple choice, multiple answer, short answer) for law and legislation module.
These formative assessment questions have been generated from a tutor’s existing questions and resources available through the Social Care Institute of Excellence. These will be deployed as revision aids for students through the module, and are designed to build knowledge and confidence by selection of only a small random proportion of the questions, but allowing multiple attempts.

Barry College
5. Art glossary
One of the issues identified by the tutors was that students had a poor knowledge of the language and terminology of art, which would hinder transition to HE or any subsequent career in art. Based on materials provided by the tutors, rich assessments (using images and text in a variety of question formats) were created and will be deployed in term two.

6. Dissertation module
As part of the dissertation module that is being created in response to outcomes from meetings earlier in this project, tasks with formative and summative feedback have been devised that will assist students in the process of writing a dissertation proposal and evaluating and improving the study skills needed. Tests are designed to educate students about what makes a good proposal/dissertation, and also to encourage the student to reflect on their proposals.

An important part of these materials is the Skills Audit in which students evaluate their learning skills using an audit tool, and then take the appropriate steps as directed by the Audit. The material has been written by Sarah Williams, and then transferred into web format by the Project officer.

In terms of the module itself, a nine week syllabus has been devised, paralleling the UWIC course, with a particular topic set for each week. The content for each week takes a blended approach, consisting of one face-to-face lecture with moderated online self study. Jonathon Clarkson, UWIC third year tutor for Fine Art, and Emma Adamson (library) have been consulted in the construction of these materials. Feedback has also been obtained from the email discussion list LDHEN

The material for the first week, ‘What is a dissertation?’ has been completed, using a variety of didactic content with formative tests.

Each component of the course has been written to be as generic as possible, while still maintaining a discipline focus, allowing the content to be used across other discipline areas, potentially HND Social Work, and Sport, in the first instance.

All the these outputs are freely available at the Project blog http://eassessmentinwales.jiscinvolve.org/

Promise and Performance: Report of the Independent Review of the Mission and Purpose of Further Education in Wales in the Context of the Learning Country, Vision into Action (Sir Adrian Webb, Sheila Drury, Gary Griffiths), December 2007. It is pleasing to note that the outputs of the Project align well with recommendation R5 (to develop national assessment tools that assess learners on their ability to perform life and work related skills in both written and oral communication).

Work with Ystrad Mynach College has progressed well. The project officer and manager attended the ‘moderation meeting’ for HND Social Care at which discussions were held with both year 1 and 2 students, providing a wealth of feedback and material from the students to aid the improvement and development of e-assessments. Relevant staff from the college have been involved in these consultations and the identified issues are being taken forward. (The equity of the students learning experience is vital in delivering a franchise course.)

Since the initial meeting mid October 2007, the Project team has begun a new strand of work for Barry College where the Project is involved in e-assessment intervention on three new Foundation Degrees¬—Textiles, Ceramics and Graphic Communication. Barry asked for multiple choice tests to help students learn basic terms and concepts; online blogs to foster a sense of community and sharing between Barry and UWIC students; and for video to be used to capture and enable critical review and assessment of student presentation skills. They also asked for formative material to support Dissertation Advice for their students, and as a consequence the Project has acquired the services of Sarah Williams, UWIC’s Learning Support Co-ordinator who has developed a series of web page tutorials, with formative testing, taking students through the dissertation process (further details under section four).
Technical issues such as ‘open internet access’ and other resources have been discussed and tackled. Further ‘tools’ have been introduced to the project such as using plagiarism software and blogs / wikis, providing a rich set from which successful interventions can be created.

The Project made its first conference presentation on 13th November 2007 at HEFCW’s From Margin to Mainstream: Consultation Conference on an E-Learning Strategy for Higher Education in Wales. The presentation, entitled E-Assessment: Strategies and Approaches across a Franchised Course, was well received. Programme details and conference presentation is available at http://www.rsc-wales.ac.uk/hefcw/programme1.asp

A further presentation, entitled HE in FE: Delivering E-Assessment across the Divide has been confirmed for the JISC Regional Support Centre South West Higher Education Conference 2008: Innovation Through Partnership on 8th April 2008.

Two members of the Project team attended the workshop Practical E-Portfolios, organised by RSC East Midlands, 28th November 2007.
The Project Officer attended the Executive Committee chaired by UWIC’s Chair of the Board of Governor’s, John Wyn Owen, on 22nd October 2007 at Coleg Glan Hafren.
The Project Manager attended UWIC’s Collaborative Provision Committee, 14th November 2007.