REF:66-2203-3296830 - Assessments instead of exams

Your comment: I am commenting on the in-person exams that are going ahead next academic year. As a second year student i and others have not received proper in person teaching at my time at university which means we are not used to the in person exam style assessments that we have not experienced in 5 years. It wouldn’t be fair to throw the students into the deep end of assessments style especially in the most important year of university. We are not familiar with the layouts and have had no practice of this style of exams. I hope you take this comment into consideration as many others feel the same way.

Our response:

Thank you for your comment. DGES has made use of AILOEs during the last two years in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We continually reflect on module content and assessment. In some cases there is a shift towards AILOE type assessment, towards more coursework oriented assessment in the longer term. We do already incorporate a significant amount and diversity of coursework assessment in our module provision and this move extends that. However, for some modules it is appropriate to reintroduce examination type assessments. Where that is done, students will be supported with preparation for this type of assessment and provided with samples so that they can familiarise themselves with format. We appreciate that the prior experience of students is different due to the adaptations both school and university have made during the pandemic. I welcome your feedback and would like to assure you that we are sensitive to the need to adapt our support and preparation to respond to the different needs and circumstances.

Thank you again for your comments, these issues are being considered within our preparations for next academic year.