HE in FECsExpert programme

Staff development materials

Title and type of material:Understanding and Using the Academic InfrastructurePowerPoint presentation

Contributing institution:Askham Bryan College is a specialist land-based College three miles west of York. We offer a range of Higher Education programmes from entry level (Level 0) to BSc and currently have around 350 full and part-time HE students, many of whom progress internally from our Further Education programmes. The College places great value on this ability to offer a continuous progression route for its students and has seen how important this is for raising aspirations. Our major validation partner is Harper Adams University College and we also deliver franchised provision (Cert. Ed. and PGCE) for the Huddersfield PCET Consortium. In addition the College is an active partner of Higher York. This life-long learning partnership consists of the College, the University of York, University of York St John, York College and Craven College (associate member). In the recent IQER of HE provision at Askham Bryan, the inspection team had confidence in the quality of academic standards and learning opportunities.

Brief description of materials:PowerPoint presentation which included a quiz.

Purpose:Reminder to teaching staff of key points in preparation for IQER Summative Review. Formed part of a full day’s training, which also included work on assessment practice.

Target audience:College staff

Other materials that could be used alongside:I went through a wide sample of module assignments and produced a table showing form of assessment e.g. essay, presentation, exam etc., including associated word counts. Staff were then asked to decide what credit rating they would assign to each (based on 15 credit modules)

How has the material been used?The table was distributed to all staff and they worked in groups deciding on the credit rating for each assignment. They were then given the ‘answers’ i.e. the rating which was actually given in the module descriptor. The purpose was to emphasise to teaching staff the amount of ‘over-assessment’ which was occurring.

How was it received?Overall received well (particularly as the Academic Infrastructure is not the most exciting of subjects!) – the audience engaged with the quiz and even became

competitive at points! The HE Director commented that it was good to be reminded of the breadth of the AI and its constituent parts. In the associated activity staff assigned 15 credits to most of the assignments and were amazed that the majority carried only 7.5 credits i.e. half a module and some even less. Some went on to undertake minor modifications of their module descriptors, whereby assessment loads decreased, as a result of this exercise.

Suggestions about how to maximise its effectivenessThe two activities worked well together and I was pleased with the direct effect on assessment strategies in certain modules.

Benefit to the CollegeStaff perceived that the training helped them to prepare for the IQER process. The IQER Summative Review was successful in terms of positive outcomes. Greater understanding of some issues surrounding the AI and assessment strategies. Will be built on in training this year. The initial driver for the training was the need for staff to be able to discuss, with confidence, how the academic infrastructure is embedded in their programmes, during the QAA visit, but the sustainable impact is becoming more overtly obvious as revalidation of all programmes approaches.

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