When is a MOLE Exam Not an Exam?

Photo on a CC license by Marie Coleman via flickr

When it's ajar?
If only it was so simple!

This blog post follows on from my last one that talked about our new MOLE Exams procedure developed by the Exams Team and us.

One of the difficulties that we face here is making the decision about how to classify a MOLE test as an 'exam'. It is very common to use MOLE tests throughout a module's teaching as a core part of the learning materials. Often they are formative tests, there to build and consolidate a student's knowledge, but they are also used summatively to test levels of understanding, and can contribute to the final grade that the student will receive for that module. Sometimes, these summative tests can appear to be very exam-like; they will take place in a room at a fixed time with someone watching over the proceedings to ensure fair play. In this scenario, should this be an exam? Well if we take a look at the University regulations, they say that 'an exam is summative work under invigilated conditions in line with the general regulations as to examinations’.

So does the 'test' to be taken in MOLE qualify by this definition? It it does, then it's an exam, and so the MOLE exam procedures apply. This is good, because suddenly you have access to all that support for booking venues, invigilators and the myriad other things that need to be dealt with for an exam.

So, if your 'test' fails this exam, erm, test, does that mean the MOLE exam procedures don't apply? Well the answer to that is yes and no. Take no first; they don't apply because the Exams Team won't handle the administration of the exam, so rooms, invigilators, and the other stuff, remain the responsibility of the department. No also applies, to a degree, to the specific exam technical support we offer (for example we can't guarantee being able to get someone to the room as quickly as we would for an exam), however, the TEL Team can, and will, still be able to support these higher stake tests, providing we receive the following information with as much notice as possible:

• When is the test happening?
• Where is it happening?
• How many students are taking it?
• Which MOLE course is it in?
• Which test is being used?
• Do you want to use the LockDown Browser? *

If we have this information, we can do our best to ensure that it runs smoothly on the day and should any problems arise will do our best to resolve them.

So when is a MOLE exam not an exam? When it's a higher stake test!

Danny

 * We hope the LockDown Browser will be ready to use for the next exams session, however we have no firm date for this yet.

App Swap Breakfast #4 Video and Audio Apps

The latest App Swap Breakfast (ASB) this week at yet another venue, our fourth in as many sessions. This time round we focused on apps and technology relating to video and audio recording, capture and playback. The event returned to a more informal setting and agenda from the previous one that was held at the University TELFest event back in January.

We hosted the ASB in the View Deli Cafe which overlooks large parts of Sheffield and gave colleagues the opportunity to grab a coffee and pastry whilst discovering new apps and technology tips.

We started with Pete Mella from the Technology Enhanced Learning Team who gave a presentation on the collection of useful Adobe Apps. Pete showcased the brilliant Adobe Voice animation tool with a live demo to show how easy it is to get good quality results. Pete showed the 20 or so colleagues in attendance what can be achieved on an iPad (as these apps are only available on IOS sadly) with very little effort. Pete has already blogged about Adobe Voice here and I was especially grateful for Pete showing this tool at the third ASB in January. It was a tool that I had heard about from colleagues but had not tried, seeing Pete’s demo sold it to me. As a result I have used the app to create over 40 short animations titled Research Hacks, which are designed to help researchers use technologies and find smarter ways to work. The collection of videos can be viewed here.

We then had a demo from my colleague Claire Beecroft who showcased a tablet device tripod that we had purchased for ourselves. The tripod cost £20 from Amazon and can be used in a variety of settings from being a camera stand to a autocue for reading text. The one that we have is the iStabilizer tabMount Tripod Adapter available from here. Claire talked about the ease of using such a small, lightweight device and the benefits of using it when all too often people fumble about trying to hold them when recording content.

I gave a presentation on a few tools that had been around for a while but were nonetheless still very useful for staff and students. Firstly I showcased the YouTube Capture app that allows users to record directly from their tablet device and upload straight to YouTube. In addition I showed another tool, that despite not being free, but is worth having in your collection as a teacher or student with Explain Everything - Formerly Explain a Website. This allows users to capture any website and screencast it, the recording will capture the user zooming in and changing pages as well as add their own notes and annotation. Jesrine Clarke-Darrington from the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Dentistry shown how students were using this app to annotate and draw on medical diagrams to explain a problem or intervention. As with many of these apps, you often find that if you cannot devise a good use for them someone else is, and Jesrine proved that very well.

I then showed a tool that was getting much publicity at the moment called Meerkat App. This app allows users to broadcast live or schedule one later to their Twitter followers. A url is created in your Twitter timeline and you can then broadcast live to who sees it, or at least is given an advance link. The tool has much potential and already some major stars are using it for impromptu broadcasts to their fans. The app could be used to broadcast live events and talks to Twitter followers for those who do not have the means to do this within their departments.

David Read gave us an excellent demo of the Swivl robotic platform for learning his department has purchased. The robot hosts a tablet device which can they track the movement of a speaker via a dongle they carry based on their voice. The robot tracks the person through 360% whilst the table can be set up to record the presenter as well. Thankfully my colleagues in ScHARR have now purchased one of these which will be interesting to use. David also talked about two apps/extensions he uses to annotate video. The first one, developed by The University of Minnesota is called Video Ant which allows users to add descriptive and analytical text along the timeline of a video recording. We also discussed videonot.es which again allows users to annoate videos and save these notes directly into Google Drive.

Graham McElearney discussed the option of using the University’s iTunes U platform to create and store podcasts. At present, iTunes U is all too often seen as a video only platform, yet there are plenty of options for uploading audio versions. There are even occasions where a video and audio version can be uploaded, therefore giving more opportunity to listen to the audio recording whilst travelling.

Claire Beecroft talked about her extensive use of AudioBoom (previously known as AudioBoo) to capture short audio  commentary by herself. Claire uses the app to record audio feedback for students as well as creating segments and audio introductions for modules and lectures. By doing this Claire is able to add an extra dimension to her feedback and interaction with students that goes way beyond that of text.

The latest App Swap Breakfast was a great deal of fun and hopefully attendees took something useful from it. We certainly covered a lot of tech and at times it felt like an episode of The Gadget Show, which is no bad thing. Certainly a big positive for the future of App Swap Breakfast was the number of attendees, the quality of talks and the venue. Certainly the plans will be to run future App Swap Breakfasts at The View Deli from now on. The next App Swap Breakfast is likely to take place in June and will look at the topic of infrastructure and legacy. Without sounding all Olympics 2012 about it, the session will be a platform to discuss how an institution like Sheffield addresses issues like support and purchasing of mobile devices of apps. About how we deal with security and privacy and how do colleagues manage a good work/life balance of using tools that increasingly creep into our private life. Obviously we will look and share apps relating to these issues whilst we sip coffee, looking of the city of Sheffield. What’s not to like?

Apps covered in this App Swap Breakfast

http://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html

https://www.youtube.com/capture

http://meerkatapp.co/

http://www.morriscooke.com/

https://www.apple.com/uk/education/ipad/itunes-u/

https://audioboom.com/

http://www.videonot.es/

http://ant.umn.edu/

http://www.swivl.com/2014/01/re-introducing-swivl-robotic-platform-learning/

MOLE Exams - A New Process

Me presenting the new process

Over the last six months, I have been working on a new MOLE Exams process with Jo Hardy, the Exams Team leader in Students Services. Jo and her team are responsible for arranging and running all the exams held at the University, but until recently MOLE exams were not part of this normal process. This has now changed, and we now have MOLE exams fully integrated into the standard exams process.

We ran a pilot with the Faculty of Engineering MOLE exams last year to assess how we could integrate these properly, and then used the outcomes of the trial to develop a complete process that allows both our teams to provide full support from the very beginning right through to the end of the exam process. Although MOLE exams are handled in the same way as a standard paper based exam, the preparation and delivery is obviously very different, so we have developed this new end to end process to ensure that the details in these differences are understood, which makes everything run much more smoothly for everyone involved.

In simple terms, the exam request from the department is made to the Exams Team. If the department has never run an exam before then the Exams Team will put them in contact with us for pedagogical and technical support around building the MOLE test that will be used for the exam. If the department is experienced, then they simply need to build the test in MOLE and wait for the confirmation for the exam schedule, then let us know. We will deploy the test in the course ensuring the configuration of the settings are correct. This means that the Chief Invigilator running the exam on the day does not get any unexpected surprises in the room the exam is being held. Any changes that need to be made to the test after this has happened must be confirmed with us, to ensure that it hasn't altered any of the settings, as this can causes issues on the day.

On the day of the exam, we offer full support but we no longer routinely attend the room, as MOLE is much more robust and we find we are not needed in the room most of the time now. The Chief Invigilators have a direct line to us for support, and we can be in the room in a few minutes if we are unable to resolve the problem over the phone. We trialled this new process during the last exams period in February, and we found it to be a success. We expected some things to require adjustment and we are reviewing those at the moment and will update the process accordingly.

We are also continuing to look at developing the whole area of MOLE exams further. Although there have been no real issues with security and unfair means in these exams, we are looking at introducing a lockdown browser to improve these aspects of the exam on the day. More information will be coming on this very soon.

Overall, the new process is working well. More information about it can be found on the Exams Team web pages (requires a UoS login), and we delivered the first on a short series of sessions to go over this in greater detail and answer any questions people have. The next session will be scheduled soon, and information on that will be available as soon as we know more details.

Clearly we don't have unlimited capacity for the number of students sitting an exam on the day as room space is always a key factor, but  we are saying that if you are interested don't let this put you off,  get it touch and we will help.

Danny