UWE Bristol

External Examiners day

29th January 2014

Jenny Dye, UG Modular Scheme Leader, HLSJudith Ritchie, Director of PG Studies, FET

External Examiners

• Field EE appointed with responsibility for a module or specified group of modules within a named field.

• Chief EE appointed to each named modular scheme. A Chief EE shall not have responsibility for any field in that modular scheme or in any

other modular scheme. • Non-modular/Linear EE

Roles and Responsibilities of the Field External Examiner• Ensure assessments are properly conducted

• Ensure standards/levels are appropriate

• Participate in Field Board decision-making e.g. consideration of any adverse cohort circumstances

• Report on the effectiveness of assessments and the conduct of the examining board

• Report any matters of serious concern arising from the assessments which put at risk the module standard

Activities may include:• Reviewing assessment tasks • Sampling the marking of student work

– Expected documentation

• Placement visits for professional practice modules • Hearing the student voice• Attending Examination Boards• Acting as a critical friend to the module / programme

team• Writing an Annual Report for the University

Field EEs are not permitted to;

• Attend Award Boards (unless a PSRB requirement)

• Be involved in any decisions which are not within the remit of the Field Board e.g. consideration of EC’s

• to change a mark for an individual student.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Non-modular/Linear EE

• Appointed to an award

• One non-modular/linear EE takes the role of ‘chief’ EE for that award

Roles and responsibilities of the Modular Chief EE• To ensure that assessment processes are

fair and rigorous across an entire modular scheme (which may encompass a number of awards at both UG and PG levels)

• To attend award boards and ensure that recommendations for awards and their classification have been reached in accordance with Academic Regulations and Procedures

Regulations and Field Board Reports• Three types of modules;

– Standard/project/professional practice

• Regulations around;

1.Late Work

2.Assessment Offences

3.Adverse Group Circumstances

4.Extenuating Circumstances

5.Other policies.

Field/Award workshop

• More specific details, e.g. when and how Field EEs have access to student work, will be provided in later workshop

Any questions?

Case 1

MCQ paper – 50% weighting of a module assessment; post exam it appears that one seminar group (one sixth of the cohort) were shown a previous MCQ paper in their pre exam revision session. When this paper was compared to the paper actually sat, ¾ of the questions were identical.

What advice might you give the module team?

Case 2

You are EE for a module that is delivered at UWE and at 2 FE colleges (collaborative provision).

During external moderation you note the following statistics;

What are your questions/considerations?

HE/FE Average mark Pass rate

UWE 58.4% 88%

FE (A) 65.5% 90%

FE (B) 47.9% 100%

Case 3Module Y assessment = essay (100% weighting);At the Field Board the module leader states that potentially all students have been disadvantaged as a key member of staff was absent through sickness for most of the module run, the module leader proposes that all students should either have their mark raised by 5% or 5 marks to compensate.What would you expect the chair to do and how might you contribute?

Case 4

The majority of the students on a programme work for a government agency. A letter is received from their manager, explaining that many of the students had an excessive workload because of a crisis situation during the exam period. An extension is suggested for all affected assessments. 4 assessments are potentially affected: 2 exams: sat just before request received 1 assessment: deadline just passed1 assessment: deadline a week after request received.

The programme manager contacts you as EE of the modules affected, what is your role?