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The Pros and Cons of 7 Digital Teaching Tools

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O ne highlight of the last 18 months has been the level of experimentation I’ve seen among educators. They’ve explored new ways to teach in different environments and new technologies to keep students involved and engaged. As we move forward, it’s important that we learn from all this experimentation so we may deliver a learning experience that’s better than what we entered the pandemic delivering.

Simply rejecting all digital modes of teaching once you’re back in a physical classroom is not in your students’—or your own—best interest. There are many benefits to virtual learning that are worth keeping. In my own teaching, I’ve tried to incorporate the best learnings of pandemic teaching by using a four-step framework —struggle, structure, systemize, and synthesize—alongside different digital teaching methods and technologies that I’ve found work for me.

The precise way you use each digital tool and the extent to which you combine digital instruction with in-person instruction will of course depend on the needs of each specific course you teach. But to help you start thinking about how digital tools can remain useful to you, here’s a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of seven of the most common ones. I also share when I use each one to help spur your thinking.

1. Recorded Lecture Videos

Recording yourself giving lectures is perhaps the simplest digital approach. While these video recordings are easy to create and effective for sharing information quickly, production value is often less than ideal and the videos can be less than engaging. Overall, this approach doesn’t nearly reach the full potential that can be accomplished with digital learning.

Advantages of recorded lectures:

They let students consume course material on their own schedule and at their own pace, which students like.

They are more accessible—you can speed them up or slow them down—and you can easily add additional accessibility features, such as automated closed captioning or transcriptions.

Students can fast forward through material they already understand and rewind or rewatch material they are struggling with, unlike in a live lecture when wandering attention can mean missing a crucial point.

Disadvantages of recorded lectures:

They can be less than engaging.

They’re not interactive.

When I use them:

Truthfully, I don’t use them very often. They can be useful for exceptional circumstances that make it impossible for everyone to be in a live lecture.

Occasionally, I use them to set up a mini-case to initiate problem-solving thinking, or to provide information about key framework ideas before class discussion, but I tend to use edited video lessons (see next section) for that purpose.

2. Edited Video Lessons

Webinar: designing better courses.

Robert D. Austin recently delivered an HBP Education webinar, entitled Designing Better Courses: Blending the Best of Pre- and Post-Pandemic Pedagogy , to discuss his course design process and detail how—and why—he mixes digital technologies both asynchronously and synchronously throughout his courses. Watch the full webinar recording here .

Advantages of video lessons:

All the advantages of recorded lectures (e.g., self-paced).

Students have an opportunity to watch several short videos in a row, as their schedules permit.

Graphics and other illustrations can be useful for clarifying concepts.

Disadvantages of video lessons:

They’re more engaging than recorded lectures, but still not interactive.

Producing these videos requires extra time and effort.

To set up initial problem situations or present useful framework materials.

To add new information that may cause students to reconsider previous conclusions.

To teach a mechanical analysis approach, such as how to calculate a net present value.

3. Zoom Sessions

When courses are held fully remotely or in a hybrid setting (with some students participating in person and some participating virtually), most class sessions and discussions happen over Zoom or a similar videoconferencing platform. These live virtual sessions can allow for a synchronous learning experience enhanced by other digital tools, such as whiteboards and other display technologies, but they cannot be considered an exact replacement for in-person discussions.

For those teaching fully in person, Zoom can still be used for things like bringing in guests from afar and for exercises that involve the use of groups in the form of breakout rooms. I run a negotiation exercise for one of my classes that is actually a lot easier to run in Zoom than in person, because it involves rapid transitions between breakout groups and larger class discussion. Zoom is also great for students to use in coordinating project work outside of class.

Advantages of Zoom sessions:

Students can synchronously interact with each other remotely.

Technology allows for unique modes of interaction and discussion, such as breakout rooms , which can be configured instantaneously, as well as chat channels.

It’s easy to invite remote guest speakers who would otherwise be unable to travel to campus.

Disadvantages of Zoom sessions:

Students and educators alike can experience Zoom fatigue.

It can be hard to read interpersonal cues from those who are remote.

While Zoom calls are interactive, they still lack valuable opportunities for casual social interaction.

There’s no real substitute for students walking in the hall together, chatting about pretty much anything. At least not yet.

For case discussions that include remote guests.

For exercises that need fast transitions in and out of groups.

For group-based project work.

4. Online Discussion Boards

Many instructors have tried to replace in-person discussions with asynchronous online discussion boards. In my experience, however, online discussion boards are best used in conjunction with synchronous discussion (via Zoom or in person). You can pick up points or concepts introduced in an online discussion and use them as jumping-off points for a synchronous discussion—giving credit to the students who raised them, of course. It’s a flow that I find leads to greater understanding of the material.

Advantages of online discussion boards:

They encourage student interaction.

Students can participate on their own time.

There’s generally no limit to the number of ideas students can contribute—meaning more students can participate in these discussions.

Shy students reluctant to engage in live sessions can build confidence with online contributions, especially if you pick up their points and credit them in synchronous discussions.

Disadvantages of online discussion boards:

Although instructors can drop comments and questions into online chat, it’s harder to actively guide and focus the discussions (because you’re not constantly there), so there’s no guarantee that students will arrive at the desired conclusions.

Multiple unrelated, branching discussions can occur at once, making things confusing or unfocused.

Students may not enjoy these types of discussions; they can feel forced or unnatural.

To start students thinking in a particular direction with the intention of bringing it all home in synchronous discussions.

To allow shy students opportunities to make contributions and gain confidence that may carry over into live sessions.

To surface ideas that I want to pick up on and add to in subsequent synchronous discussions.

5. Simulations

Simulations, like case studies, are a way to immerse students in a very specific experience—but with simulations, information is unfolding in real time. We can then ask students to do the work of extracting generalizable propositions, frameworks, theories, and so forth under our guidance.

Advantages of simulations:

They invite students to interact directly with the course material—and often each other—to solve the types of problems they may encounter in a real business environment.

Students have the opportunity to take direct control of their learning . They reach their own conclusions, then connect those learnings to framework material you present to rescue them from their struggle with it—to help them structure and systemize.

They have narrative elements and cause students to change their minds; students tend to remember lessons from simulations in much the same way they remember an impactful dramatic experience.

They give students experience in organizing and making meaning from information that arrives in real time and out of any helpful order.

Disadvantages of simulations:

They can take up a lot of time; in my view, the real learning from a simulation happens in a debrief and you need to take the time to distill out general lessons , especially when the models that underlie a simulation are complex.

Preparing a simulation for use can be effort intensive for instructors.

Very much in the same situations I use cases—when I want to present specific problems or situations from which I want students to derive general lessons.

To mix learning modes, as a break from and enhancement of cases.

Sometimes, in conjunction with cases, to show students that it can be harder than they think to “walk the talk”—to do what they said they would do in a case discussion when confronted with a problem unfolding in real time.

6. Multimedia Content

There’s also a lot of great multimedia content available—and this is yet another way to mix things up and shift modes to keep students interested. Using video elements in multimedia cases , for example, allows students see and hear case protagonists as opposed to just reading quotations.

Advantages of multimedia content:

Multimedia experiences offer a change of pace, and they’re often highly engaging.

Disadvantages of multimedia content:

They still don’t facilitate casual social interaction.

When I use it:

When I want to offer alternative modes for introducing problems or management situations, much like my use cases for simulations.

7. Curated Content

Many of us were using curated third-party content—anything from TED Talks to podcasts to YouTube tutorial videos—before the pandemic. But going virtual has prompted me to search around and use even more curated material. This kind of content can be used for a variety of desired outcomes: to help students explore case studies more deeply, for example, or to complete projects in virtual workspaces, such as Miro or Google Jamboard, for which students may need a how-to assist.

Advantages of curated content:

It’s often quite engaging, and much of it is very professionally done.

Once you have located good content, there is relatively little an instructor needs to do other than cue it up.

Disadvantages of curated content:

When you use too much of this type of content, students can think that you haven’t prepared for their specific needs.

Some content isn’t research based, or it can even put forth theoretical ideas that are unsupported or flawed. You must verify the quality of the content for yourself.

Pretty much anywhere—interwoven amid asynchronous edited video content or in synchronous classes, whether online or in person.

Pulling This All Together: An Example

The thought of putting all of these pieces—and there are a lot of them—together can feel like assembling a difficult puzzle. But by taking a fresh look at these technologies and thinking through how these use cases may support your course objectives, you can land on some really powerful learning experiences for your students.

Here is an example of how I tried to get the mix right for a course called Managing Innovation that I teach in Ivey’s Accelerated MBA program.

Robert D. Austin, “ Designing Better Courses: Blending the Best of Pre- and Post-Pandemic Pedagogy ,” Harvard Business Publishing Education, July 21, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021.

To step through this in more detail, watch the video below to hear me talking though this sample implementation.

The New Normal of Teaching Includes Digital Tools

No matter how enticing it may be to return to your previous “normal”—a normal in which perhaps you didn’t incorporate all that many technologies or tools in your teaching—there are many benefits to virtual learning that are worth keeping, from better accessibility for all students to more opportunities for experiential learning that sticks.

By carefully considering the pros and cons of each available technology, you can choose the digital tools that will best support your lesson plans, making each stage of your course as effective and memorable for your students as possible.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you use other technologies in your online, hybrid, or in-person courses that aren’t on this list? We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] .

Robert D. Austin is a professor of information systems at Ivey Business School and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He has published widely, authoring nine books, more than 50 cases and notes, three Harvard online products, and two popular massive open online courses (MOOCs) running on the Coursera platform.

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Counting toward a final mark or grade, coursework considers one of the most crucial assignments during the class. It involves two main stages: doing research or experiment; presenting findings, and freshly acquired knowledge in a digestible form. While the first phase excites students, the second one strikes fear in the heart and causes real trouble. Let us get to the basics of this type of assignment to nail it no matter what.

What Is a Coursework?

Coursework is work assigned to students or trainees to improve specific skills and upgrade their learning experience. Basically, it involves two main stages. The first one includes practice, experimentation, or research. The second stage implies writing a coursework essay or completing writing assignments such as dissertations or book reports. It can be seen in all fields of study, from Business to Computer Science to Literature.

As a rule, coursework accompanies exams and is crucial when determining overall course scores. However, unlike final tests, it provides students with plenty of time for completion, from a couple of days to several weeks. On top of that, students are welcome to use any help they can find during this process.

Importance to Write a Coursework

Writing coursework is crucial for every student because of providing these benefits:

• It broadens knowledge.
• It enhances research skills.
• It demonstrates a person's ability to discuss, reason, and construct practical outcomes from learned theoretical knowledge.
• It improves communication skills since some work is done in groups, so students need to learn how to collaborate to achieve a common goal.
• It inspires confidence in a person's ability to do a grand job.

Main Obstacle of Producing a Top-grade Coursework

Recent surveys show that in the majority of cases, students do not find issued tasks challenging, even though some of them are daunting, tricky, and even controversial. What they have found difficult is the proper presentation of the final work.

Indeed, over 80% of postgraduates believe the first phase, which involves experiments, research, and acquiring new knowledge in the field, to be quite exciting. However, the second stage, which implies expressing your thoughts, presenting results, and convincing the teacher that you have done a great job using the only written word, is believed to be a true nightmare and a challenge. The reason for that is simple; not everyone has good writing skills. Plus, almost everyone experiences a writing block that slows down the process and causes stress.

To make matters worse, students have to handle some other bumps on the road to success, for instance

• They need to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
• They need to avoid focusing on external approval because it may shut down creativity.
• They need to meet strict deadlines.
• They need to balance education and personal life, including work or volunteering.
• They need to do extensive research.
• They need to finish other assignments.

Where to Get Coursework Help?

Coursework help may come in different forms. It can be coursework assistance provided by the teacher or instructor during lessons or special meetings in high school. Alternatively, it can be an online coursework help provided by tutors through digital means of communication.

Pandemic and its severe restrictions have boosted many services whose task is to provide coursework help online. Let us consider the classification of these platforms to know what help you might get.

Types of Coursework Help Services

Coursework help services come in all shapes and sizes to meet teachers' most sophisticated needs and highest expectations. Let us consider the most popular ones:

• Custom coursework help.
• Creating coursework from scratch.
• Rewriting coursework.
• Proofreading coursework.
• Review coursework to get vital feedback for improvement.
• Citations help.
• Creating supporting PowerPoint presentations.

Whatever problem or issue you have, you may undoubtedly get professional help with coursework regardless of its niche, subject, requirements, and deadline.

But, what if you do not need any assistance provided by coursework services and all you crave is just a little push and guidance to do this task yourself. Then you can opt in favor of an oldie but goodie collection of professionally written and edited coursework examples since they meet those needs and offer so many benefits without compromising your time, effort, and budget.

Benefits of Using Coursework Examples

Getting cousework help through exploring coursework samples offers a bunch of benefits. For instance,

• They show what you need to score that top-notch mark.
• They give insights on how to improve the reading experience.
• They help to infuse your work with some unique and exciting passages.
• They offer an alternative view of the topic that may generate new ideas.
• They display the ideal order of the content and adequate evaluation of evidence.
• They show how to organize arguments and counterarguments to support students' positions and opinions.
• They give insights on how to create a smooth transition between abstracts making one idea flow into another without tension and using words that are understandable by people at any level.
• They demonstrate more up to the point writing.
• They ensure no unnecessary deduction in marks that may occur due to incorrect formatting.
• They have correct grammar and the right tone of language that students may easily imitate in their papers to level them up.
• They stick to format rules showing the right way to implement instructions to meet university standards and teachers' instructions.
• They help students to focus on their tasks without losing nerves.
• They ease stress and help students avoid drama and mental issues.
• They save students precious time, letting them focus on more critical tasks or dedicate their efforts to experiments and social work that may improve their coursework with real-life experience.
• They give a much-needed boost to kick off the work and, most importantly, overcome writing block.

All you need to enjoy all those benefits is to find a reliable platform that offers college coursework help. Though, this is not a problem because there are a bunch of them in the wild.

How to Write Top-Grade Coursework? Best Practices

Completing coursework is a hard nut to crack; however, making it worth a top grade is even harder. However, no obstacle is insurmountable if you know what to do. Many teachers and top-level postgraduates suggest using as much help as possible and following the best practices.

Therefore, consider these tips shared by professionals to help you in this matter:

• Stop trying to write a good completely free essays online . Let your creative juices flow.
• Take your time and do extensive research.
• Ask yourself, "What surprises me about this subject the most?" Focus on your answer and build your story around this finding or discovery.
• Write three to five sentences covering your most crucial points.
• Quote sources liberally throughout your paper. If you are not allowed to quote, you can re-phrase what has been said in your own words and give proper credit. Also, make sure 60% of the content belongs to you, while 40% are quotes or paraphrases from your sources to avoid sounding too "source" heavy.
• When creating a draft, write in this order: first – body, then – introduction, after that – conclusion.
• Reach the required word count. Stay to the point but be descriptive and argumentative.
• Make sure your arguments flow smoothly from one idea to another.
• Last but not least, if you feel something is wrong with your paper or requires some polish, do not be afraid to check and proofread it on platforms that offer coursework online help.
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What is Coursework: Updated Guide for 2024

Coursework is the most significant part of academic writing that requires so much time and effort. You should consider the guidance of your teachers and your seniors who have similar experiences in writing a coursework. This makes the process of working faster and more effective, which leads to the best outcomes. This guide will help you to understand what coursework is and how to write coursework effectively, based on expert tips from our coursework writing service team.

What is Coursework?

Coursework consists of all basic assignments given to students to evaluate their level of understanding. It includes many types of assignments, such as essay writing, research papers, discussion boards and written reports. To get excellent grades and grade point averages (GPA), students must understand the basic concepts of their courses. Coursework is difficult to define, even though it is usually important to complete a specific program. This kind of assignment can be completed in a wide range of formats. 

Importance of Coursework

Coursework is the most common type of assignment that teachers give students to understand their level of learning on a specific topic or subject. Moreover, it shows how well a student understands and uses the topic in various contexts. Through coursework writing, students may improve their research abilities, increase their understanding of a subject, develop their analytical skills, and apply the knowledge they have discovered to use independently. Furthermore, students learn to summarize the topic with key arguments and then draw conclusions by learning how to write coursework . 

Types of Coursework

Five different types of coursework are given to students:

Analytical Coursework

Analytical Coursework presents a thesis statement or claim and demonstrates how to study different things. It usually focuses on the literary style of the text rather than the synopsis.

Supportive Commentary

Supportive Commentary helps students to create a single piece of media writing. Coursework should be written in an experimental mode, such as written, spoken, or multimodal. Students must also include a supporting statement that contains all the information and aspects. 

Journal Coursework

Writing journals for coursework is regarded as an act that promotes casual writing as a regular activity. This can take many different forms and is useful for multiple purposes. It can be both creative and personal. In order to organize their thoughts, compose their ideas, and respond to them, students are always expected to keep journals as part of their coursework.

Analytical Study

Analytical study is the process of sharing an analysis of the chosen work and how it relates to the relevant material. It also shows how well the writer understands the entire process of writing. Students should use proper vocabulary and must maintain word consistency. Also, understand the structure and format of writing.  

Commentary and Creative Writing

In commentary and creative writing coursework, students are asked to generate creative content that reflects the tone or style of the assessed text. It also helps to share comments to support the knowledge. Additionally, the major purpose of creative writing and commentary is to demonstrate knowledge, test skills, and engage the target audience through various languages.

Coursework Writing Tips

There are some key points that you should keep in mind while writing coursework. 

It is the worst possible scenario for any kind of academic writing assignment. Today, the internet has tons of relevant information, and professors become rigorous in the context of plagiarism. Your own words should be used in all writing! Use the advised citation style and make references list if you choose to include quotations from the sources. Claim that it is your own project and sign the declaration.

Keep in mind the precise guidelines for the coursework's length. Specify whether the references, appendices, and footnotes are counted as part of the word count.

Browse the possible topics. Try to pick a relevant coursework topic that is similar to the subject of the upcoming exam if one will be held on it. 

Get Help from Tutor

Never ignore your teacher's advice; ask for their guidance on your topic. Also, to learn more, ask questions, but remember they may only read the first draft once and give general suggestions.

Perfect Coursework Writing Structure

The precision required for coursework writing depends not only on the writing process but also on the design. Even if you produce a stunning and thoroughly researched paper for the professor, poor design will still result in bad grades. We have chosen the most significant components to build a flawless coursework structure for you after reviewing many coursework standards. The structure consists of the following main components:

Introduction or Opening

The first step is to write the coursework introduction after choosing a topic. This introduction section needs to be extraordinary to catch the reader's attention. Make sure to include all essential details, and keep it brief or precise. 

Include any background data about the topic you have chosen. Write down your goals as well. This section should contain your thesis statement. Also, write the introduction in such a way that it serves as the reader's guide.

Main Body 

Your hard work and dedication will be reflected in this section. In the body section, you should add every minute detail you discovered on your research journey. Additionally, this section will be written in the past tense with an informative tone. 

Readers may find research findings boring because they are just stats and figures. Therefore, this section should include appealing tables, graphs, infographics and charts to make it interesting. Mention each statistic as it is; do not change any findings. 

Summarize your whole coursework in this section. The conclusion needs to be short while covering all the details. You might mention the essential takeaways from the coursework.

How to Write a Coursework: Step-by-Step Guide

This step-by-step guide will walk you through how to write coursework effectively

Research is the most crucial part of any writing project. A lot of effort and time is required, but it is worthwhile because it serves as the core of your work and helps establish and defend your point of view.  You can find the necessary information from many primary and secondary sources. Always double-check the information you get online because not all of it is reliable, and some of it can be out of date. Make notes on each source you consult while researching, including the definition, quotation, or information you discovered. Make a table with citations or links to web sources. It is also very helpful to utilize such a table while writing the bibliography section.

Planning 

At the planning phase, it is advised to make a rough outline of your coursework, decide which information you will add, and what points you should add in each section. Making a plan first and then sticking to it is very helpful.  For example, create a table and include all steps of your work with the dates when you want to work on them. This is a fantastic method for time management and a great way to quit delaying things so you can finish them before the deadline.

Drafting 

It could be challenging to write the initial draft of a lengthy article. However, there isn't much you can do about it. In this scenario, the sole piece of guidance that is appropriate is to start writing. Once you start putting together your coursework, you'll observe that there aren't a lot of differences between your paper and other typical written assignments. The section for which you have the most information should come first. These academic papers are never written according to the structure's order. The opening portion of your paper is where you can begin writing because it is more general than the rest.  You can pick out some interesting, pertinent coursework examples or reports to discuss in your writing so your reader will better understand the issue you are gradually focused on. You can go on to terms and situations that are more precise after acquiring the background information.

The last step is to edit and polish your document. While proofreading, it's crucial to focus on consistency problems, stylistic errors, and grammar and punctuation errors.

Many tools, including Grammarly , are available to help you with grammar. You should use these tools because you might miss some errors. No software can help you fix your writing style and logical structure mistakes. However, you can turn to a team of expert writers and editors for a high-quality editing service and a properly polished document.

Verify the word count and formatting specifications provided by your educational institution. Before submitting your work for review to your professor, you should also allow time for the editing phase, so plan accordingly.

Formative vs Summative Coursework Assessments

Formative assessment assesses students' understanding of a subject by offering them practice in essay creation and structure which can also be beneficial for tasks like term paper writing . It assists students in evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and focuses on areas that require improvement. Moreover, formative assessments help instructors in identifying students' areas of difficulty and taking prompt action to resolve issues

Summative assignments, on the other hand, evaluate students' knowledge at the end of the semester. Summative assessment includes mid-term exams and final-year project. When completing courses, it is vital to understand the type of review you are submitting to. If you understand the coursework meaning and finish your assignments on time, you might obtain an A+.

Get Coursework Help from Experts

If you want to write your coursework successfully, follow all the steps mentioned above. If you still have difficulty writing coursework, you can get academic writing help at our essay writing service  with one click. We have a group of experienced writers who can offer you timely, cost-effective coursework help online. 

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• How to Make Your Coursework as Good as It Can Possibly Be

Many GCSE and A-level subjects are assessed in part by coursework in addition to exams, meaning that the mark you receive for coursework contributes to your overall grade. Many students prefer coursework, because it’s a chance to showcase your academic abilities away from the high-pressured environment of the exam room, making it ideal for those who don’t perform to the best of their abilities in exams. However, the time you have available for coursework, in contrast with the time constraints of the exam room, can lull some students into a false sense of security. Coursework is arguably just as challenging as exams, just in different ways – and, given the fact that you have more time, much higher standards are expected of you in coursework than in exams. Careful planning and research are needed for successful coursework, as well as strong data-gathering and essay-writing skills. In this article, we look at how to produce excellent coursework, from planning to proofreading. This information might also be useful to you if you’re planning on attending an Oxford Summer School this summer.

What is coursework?

GCSE and A-level coursework typically takes the form of an extended essay or project. Its objectives vary from one subject to another, but there’s usually an emphasis on the student conducting independent research into a topic of their own choice. Thus coursework often takes the form of some sort of investigation; it may, therefore, help to have your ‘detective’ hat on as you explore, investigate and analyse your topic. You can usually work on your coursework at home, though it’s sometimes completed under controlled conditions through sessions at school. To give you a better idea of how coursework varies from one subject to another, here are some examples:

• English – English coursework usually takes the form of an extended essay with a title of your choice. You’re usually given a choice of themes and/or texts to explore, and you could choose a format such as a comparison between a set text and another one.
• Geography – Geography coursework usually focuses on the gathering, reporting and interpretation of data designed to answer a particular geographical question. You could investigate usage of a shopping centre, for example, or look at erosion on a particular beach.
• Sciences – coursework for science subjects often takes the form of a scientific project or experiment that you conduct and report on yourself.

Before you start work on your coursework, it’s essential that you have a thorough understanding of the rules. Failing to conform to the rules – inadvertently or not – may result in your coursework (or possibly even your entire qualification) being disqualified, so it’s a serious matter.

• No plagiarism – this is particularly dangerous given the ready availability of relevant information on the internet these days. Make sure everything is in your own words; you’ll need to sign a declaration stating that it’s your own original work.
• There’s only so much help your teacher can give you . They can provide guidance on what you need to include, and on what the examiners will be looking for. You can ask them questions, but they’ll usually only be able to check through your first draft once and offer broad hints on updating it.
• Check the word count , and stick to it. Find out whether footnotes, appendices and bibliographies are included in the word count.
• Check what topics you’re allowed to do your coursework on; if there’s an exam on this topic, you’ll almost certainly have to choose a different one for your coursework.

Choose your topic wisely

Ideally, choose something you’re genuinely interested in, as your enthusiasm will come across and you’ll find it more enjoyable to write. If there’s something you’ve been working on for the course so far that you’ve particularly enjoyed, you may be able to focus more on this as part of your coursework. For science coursework, you’ll need to choose something to investigate that you can measure, change and control; it should be what’s called a ‘fair test’, meaning that you have to acknowledge all the controls you use in the experiment and why. Try not to pick a topic for which the scope is too vast, as you’ll struggle to research it properly and you’re unlikely to do it justice, and it’ll be hard to keep within the word limit. Ask your teachers for some guidance on choosing your topic if you’re not sure what to write about; they might even tell you a bit about what previous students have done to give you some inspiration.

Plan how long it’s going to take

Never leave your coursework until the last minute, even if this is your normal approach to essays and it usually works for you. Make sure you understand when the deadlines are, including time for submitting a first draft for comments from your teacher. Then schedule blocks of time for working on it, allowing plenty of time before the deadline to cater for any unexpected delays. Allow ample time for making corrections based on teacher feedback on your first draft, and keep some time aside before the deadline for final editing and proofreading. Because actual deadlines are few and far between, you’ll need to take responsibility for the writing process and impose some deadlines on yourself to ensure it’s finished in time. Write down your deadlines on a calendar, with the coursework broken into stages and dates assigned to each, by which time each task should be complete. You can base your stages on the next few points in this article – research and data gathering, a structure plan for the piece of work, writing up, and so on.

Conducting your research and gathering data

As coursework is primarily a research exercise, the research phase is crucial, so don’t be tempted to skimp on it and go straight to writing up. Use as many different resources as you can to gather data: books, journals, newspapers, television, radio, the internet and anything else you think might be relevant. For science and Geography coursework, you’ll need to base your work on a hypothesis, so the research stage should start by coming up with at least one hypothesis, otherwise your research will lack direction. The research phase for some subjects may involve site visits for gathering data, so allow plenty of time for this, particularly if you need your parents to drive you somewhere to do so. If it’s a scientific experiment you’re conducting for your coursework, you’ll need to pay careful attention to planning the experiment using rigorous scientific methods (also noting what Health and Safety precautions you are taking), as well as reading up on the background and theory so that you have an idea of what to expect from the outcome of your experiment. In the research stage, make notes about what you expect to happen, so that you can later compare your expectations with what actually did happen. The experiment itself also forms part of the research and data-gathering stage for your science coursework; in the write-up stage, which we come onto shortly, you analyse and write up the results.

Plan your structure

Once you’ve completed your research, the process of writing up begins. Before you get down to the actual writing, however, it’s advisable to write a plan for how you’re going to structure it – essentially an essay plan for English coursework and other subjects for which the coursework is based on an extended essay. It’ll look slightly different from an essay plan for science subjects and others that revolve around project work, but the principle is the same: plan out what order you’re going to present your information in. For big projects, this is particularly important, because with a lot of information to convey, you risk being disorganised and waffling.

Writing up your project

For any coursework, but particularly coursework based around an extended essay, you’ll need to perfect your essay-writing abilities. For science coursework, writing up your project also involves data analysis, as you interpret the results of your experiment and work your notes into formal scientific language. Follow the links below to find lots more useful advice on writing great essays.

• How to write dazzlingly brilliant essays
• How to write more original essays
• Techniques from creative writing that can improve your essays

When you’re writing up, it’s important to find a place where you can work quietly, without distractions that could cause you to make careless errors. You wouldn’t want noise or distractions when you were in an exam room, so treat your coursework with the same reverence.

Supporting materials and images

For some subjects, namely the sciences and Geography, it would be appropriate to include images, graphs, charts, tables and so on in your coursework. For example, for Geography coursework, your extra material could include annotated images and maps of the site you’re talking about, plus tables, graphs and charts. An appendix could then detail your raw data; if, for example, your coursework focused on the results of a survey, you could put the raw survey responses in an appendix and provide summaries and analysis in the main body of the coursework.

Footnotes and bibliography

As we said earlier, it’s important that you always use your own words in your coursework to avoid the possibility of falling foul of plagiarism rules. However, it’s acceptable to quote from another source, as you would in any piece of academic writing, but you must make sure that you state where it is from and use quotation marks to show that it’s a quote from somewhere else. The best way of citing another work is to use a footnote; word processors will allow you to insert one, and it just puts a little number at the end of the sentence and another in the footer of the document, into which you put the name of the author and work, and the page within that work that the quote can be found. At the end of your piece of work, include a bibliography that includes a list of every external source you’ve used in the creation of your coursework. Stick to a set formula when including books. A common format is: Author Surname, Initial. (Date) – Title of Book , page number For example: Lewis, C.S. (1960) – Studies in Words , p. 45 When you get to university, you’ll be expected to include footnotes and bibliographies in all your essays, so it’s a good habit to get into and coursework gives you good practice at it.

The final pre-submission check

Having completed a first draft, received feedback from your teacher, and honed your work into a finished piece of coursework, have a final check through it before you send off your coursework for submission.

• Sense check : have a read through your completed piece of work and check that it all makes sense. Make sure you haven’t contradicted yourself anywhere, or repeated yourself, or laboured the point. If there are any facts that you may have meant to look up to double check their accuracy, do so now.
• Word count : ensure that the completed work falls within the word count, and double check whether the bibliography should be included in the word count. If you’ve exceeded it, you’ll need to work through the piece and tighten up your writing, omitting unnecessary information, reordering sentences so that they use fewer words, and so on.
• Proofread : check your spelling and grammar, and ensure that there are no typos. Don’t just use the spellcheck – go through it with a fine toothcomb, manually, and if you can, ask someone to read through it for you to see if they spot anything you haven’t.
• Formatting : check that you’ve included page numbers, and that the font and line spacing is consistent throughout the work. Ensure that the font is plain and easy to read, such as Arial or Times New Roman.
• Bibliography : check that you’ve included everything, that the format is the same for all sources mentioned, and that the right information is included for each.

Once this stage is complete, you’re ready to submit your coursework along with your declaration that it’s entirely your own work. Get ready for a feeling of immense satisfaction when you finally send off your hard work!

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Celebrating 150 years of Harvard Summer School. Learn about our history.

Your Guide to Conquering College Coursework

Getting good grades in college can be a lot tougher than in high school. For many students, it requires building new skills and establishing new habits. Learning those skills now—before starting college—will help make your transition as easy and as successful as possible.

Mary Sharp Emerson

The transition from high school to college is a big one. Meeting new friends, living on your own, and creating your own schedule are just some of the new, exciting challenges that await you.   

In the excitement of starting a new life on campus, college coursework can sometimes become a second priority.

However, adjusting to college coursework is often the biggest challenge of all. Even the best students may be surprised at how difficult college courses are. The subject matter is more complex. The workload is larger. And instructors’ standards are higher.

Mastering college-level courses requires a new level of independence, advocacy, engagement, and time management.

You can prepare yourself to succeed before you even get to campus. Identifying the skills you need, and building those skills into established habits, will help make your transition to college academics, and college life, easier, less stressful, and more successful.

Be engaged in your college coursework

College courses require your full attention and active participation.

And the more you engage with your teachers, teaching assistants, and classmates both in and out of the classroom, the easier it will be for you to succeed in that class.

The importance of active listening

Active listening is one of the most critical parts of engaging in a course, according to Gina Neugebauer, assistant director of Harvard Summer School’s Secondary School Program.

“Professors and teaching assistants can tell if you’re actively listening. They notice if you’re taking notes and making eye contact. They also notice if you’re distracted by your phone or computer,” notes Neugebauer.

Active listening means not checking your social media accounts or texting friends during class.

It also means really giving the instructor and your classmates your full attention.

It sounds easy in theory but it takes practice. It can be tough to not think about all the work you have or your next party. But the more you work on actively listening, the easier it will be to not get distracted and miss important information in class.

Different ways to actively participate

Beyond active listening, there are many ways to participate in a course. And you can tailor your level of engagement to your personality and comfort level.

“It’s all about gauging what you’re comfortable with,” says Neugebauer.

“You may not be the person who raises their hand all the time but you actively respond to online discussion posts, for example. You may not feel comfortable talking in front of hundreds of students in a large lecture hall but you take advantage of TA office hours and email the instructor with questions.”

But don’t be afraid to push yourself if you aren’t someone who usually speaks up in class.

It’s ok to start small. Work on raising your hand in small seminars or discussion sections. As you gain confidence, you’ll find it gets easier to answer questions and share your opinions.

Build independence and advocate for yourself

In college, you are responsible for your own success. You will need to advocate for yourself and know when—and how—to ask for help. That requires a level of independence that you may not have needed in high school.

The good news is that instructors and teaching assistants want to help you.

“Instructors, on the whole, enjoy hearing from you. And they’d rather hear from you right from the start, rather than have you struggle on your own for three weeks,” says Neugebauer.

If you have a question about an assignment, send your instructor an email. Are you upset about a grade you got on a recent test? Visit your instructor or TA during office hours to discuss what went wrong and how you can improve.

But remember, says Neugebauer, professors are busy and you are only one of many students.

“Your email should include your full name, what course you’re taking, and a brief description of your question or concern. And you cannot expect an answer at 2 a.m. because that’s when you’re studying. When you reach out to an instructor, give them 24-48 hours to respond.”

And remember, always be respectful and non-confrontational.

Challenge yourself in a college course. Get a sneak peak at college life.

Explore summer programs for high school students.

Don’t be afraid to seek help

If you have excelled in high school without extra help, you might be tempted to persevere on your own.

In college, Neugebauer points out, asking for help is the norm.

“Once you get into your undergraduate program, you’ll find that almost everyone has, at some point, asked a TA for extra tutoring, gone to a tutoring center, or a writing or math center for extra help. It’s part of the learning process of an undergraduate program,” Neugebauer says.

Colleges have a variety of support systems in place to help you succeed.

TA office hours are a great place to start if you find yourself struggling with a specific concept or assignment. Peer tutoring programs enable you to learn from students who have been through the course themselves. Academic coaches can help with more general study tips or exam-related stress.

The key is seeking out help proactively, before you get too far behind. As the courses become more difficult, catching up becomes increasingly difficult.

Build time management techniques

Balancing everything that comes with life on a college campus can be difficult for many incoming college students.

“The biggest challenge we see facing high school students who are trying to adapt to college life is overcommitment. Students want to engage in every activity, a full course load, and even sometimes a part-time job. They don’t schedule enough time for self-care, quiet time, doing laundry, and plenty of study time. All those things take time,” Neugebauer says.

Good study habits and time management are key to avoiding the stress that comes from getting overcommitted.

Neugebauer recommends getting into the habit of keeping an accurate and up-to-date calendar.

“The best thing I can recommend is a calendar, such as Google Calendar. Use it to schedule everything: your class, your lunch time, time at the gym. It may seem counterintuitive, but work on scheduling literally everything, even sleep.”

Be sure to include assignments, tests, and other deadlines, as well as office hours for your instructors, TAs, and academic coaches.

Use your calendar to block off dedicated study time. And once you schedule it, stick to it! Avoid the temptation to procrastinate or use that time to hang out, play video games, or scroll on your phone.

Your calendar should also include dedicated time for self-care.

Regular mealtimes, good exercise habits, and a full night’s sleep are not only critical for your physical and mental health. You’ll also be surprised at how much they contribute to your academic success.

Challenge yourself as you engage in college coursework

Getting outside your comfort zone is a critical part of preparing yourself for the exciting challenges that await you in college.

“Being uncomfortable allows for growth. It means saying to yourself, ‘this is new. I want to try it. I want to see how it feels.’ This is all about adapting to a new environment but also examining yourself as a person,” says Neugebauer.

Taking on a new challenge—regardless of the ultimate outcome—builds resilience, mental toughness, and confidence, all of which you will need to succeed in your college courses.

But, warns Neugebauer, it’s also important to know your limitations.

“That uncomfortable feeling should be manageable. It should be a challenge but not so challenging that you feel panicked and wake up in cold sweats every night. It should be something that gets you a little nervous but also excited about what you’re involved in every day.”

However you decide to challenge yourself, it’s never too early to start if college is in your future. The sooner you start identifying and mastering the skills you need in college, the better prepared you’ll be to succeed right from day one.

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About the Author

Digital Content Producer

Emerson is a Digital Content Producer at Harvard DCE. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale University and started her career as an international affairs analyst. She is an avid triathlete and has completed three Ironman triathlons, as well as the Boston Marathon.

8 Reasons Why Harvard Summer School Isn’t a Summer Camp — It’s So Much More!

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Guidelines and steps for writing a coursework | Tips for good writing

What is a coursework and why to write a coursework.

A coursework is a written or practical work done by student in form of thesis, dissertation, project or paper as a part of course. This is often an essential requirement for being awarded a degree and counts towards successful completion of the course. A coursework is assessed by class instructors or by other teachers in the school. Many students cannot clearly define what is a coursework. In a nutshell, at the “A” and GSCE level , a coursework is written in the form of projects or essays. There are few guidelines and good practices which should be followed while writing a coursework. Perfect examples of a coursework include extended essay, field studies, practical activities, design studies and internal assessment test set. Conversely, each coursework have differing objectives from one course unit to another. In addition, a coursework may incorporate work for which the experiments, topics, themes or parameters of a project or essay have been designed by the teacher, or specified in the syllabus, or selected by the students themselves. Therefore, a coursework is presented in a form of a research assignment meant to reflect the understanding of topics and concepts by the student. Students can handle their coursework either at school under the controlled conditions in class sessions, and/or as homework.

Coursework writing varies from one subject to another as the need differs for each subject. For example, an English coursework differs from a geography coursework. Whereas the former requires the student to present coursework in an essay format where a student has to select a title of their choice. Whereas the latter highly focuses on collecting, and examining, inferring and reporting data, answering a certain geographical question. For example, in English coursework, a student is often assigned to choice of themes or text excerpt to write on a format of their choice. One can either employ a comparison approach or the cause-effect method. Conversely, coursework in subjects, such as geography coursework, requires scholars to conduct investigations. For example, students can explore on the desert features, river formation or usage of social facilities such as halls, schools and hospital and report the findings.

Some rules & guidelines for writing a coursework

So how to start a coursework? Just like any other academic piece, there are some rules and guidelines that determine what makes a coursework good and exceptional. It is significant for scholars to consider all the following points for writing a coursework to score good grade and avoid having their paper disqualified:

• Students are not allowed to seek help from the instructors or from fellow students unless it is a group coursework or instructed. Though, an instructor is only permitted to deliver directions on how to handle a coursework paper as well as pointing out specific areas that are critically checked by examiners.
• Students should avoid plagiarism. It is a rule that is considered as a serious academic offense if committed. Under this rule, a student is expected to submit an original work written and not copied from other source. This is checked by using various softwares that checks for plagiarism. Therefore, students should make sure there work is their own words by signing a declaration asserting that it is your own piece of work. Buying coursework is also an offense if it is discovered.
• Also, a student has to confirm the word count on their paper to ensure it has the instructed word limits without the consideration of the appendices, references and footnotes.
• Students have to be keen and careful when they are selecting the topics to avoid writing on a wrong topic that is not covered in the coursework. A topic already covered should also be checked or discussed with concerned faculty before writing.

 All these rules are constantly restated in coursework prompts and rubrics to ensure one does not derail and violate them when they are figuring out on how to start a coursework.

Deciding good topic for a coursework

The capability to choose a good topic to write on is a vital skill in coursework writing. All the work and efforts will revolve around the chosen topic. If given the liberty to choose, then the topic should be something you would love to write about.

• Sometimes instructors can assign you to handle a specific topic, but often, as a writer, you are required to develop or select a topic that interests you is the one you may enjoy writing about. For example, you may decide to settle on a topic from either an area you understood well in the syllabus or from an area in the course that you enjoyed.
• However, before deciding on your topic, you need to examine whether you can control, measure and change the topic by conducting a fair taste. It is advisable not to select topics that appear ambiguous or which have a wider scope as it might affect the developing of a precise thesis statement, as they make it difficult to reach the word limit as well as failing to satisfy the topic. Also, students are allowed to seek guidance and assistance on choosing suitable topic to write in a situation where you are not sure on what to write about. For example, you can check previous assignments done by other students to get idea about their approaches on particular topics.

Steps for writing a coursework

• Before writing a coursework, a student has to plan based on duration and the materials needed and as instructed in coursework tips. Concerning the deadline, a student must not wait until the last-minute for the paper to start writing. Last minute rush in completing a paper can cause students to make common grammar mistakes that will affect their final grade.
• Deadlines are normally indicated in all the  coursework assignments and a student has to understand when the deadlines are due for the final assignments as well as time for submitting a first draft for comments from your teacher.
• Proper time planning will spare you plenty of time to make corrections based on teacher’s remarks, as well as creating time for final editing and proofreading.
• To achieve this, you have to set up your own deadlines that are far or within the actual deadline to ensure you complete your coursework writing in time.
• Research is about collecting significant and supporting literature from both primary and secondary sources. You will be required to collect data and know methods of data collection as a part of this step. Conducting surveys and preparing good questionnaires will be a much needed skill in many cases.

• The actual writing of your paper commences after gathering sufficient data that will do justice to the topic.
• Student has to write down the paper structure before writing. Though, the outline provided in the essay instructions where students are expected to follow.
• A standard essay format comprises of an introduction, body and conclusion.  In particular, structure planning in important for big projects, because there is a likelihood of having disorganized and waffling writing since it entails a lot of information to convey that needs to be arranged. This has a significant impact on your data analysis and presentation.
• Consequently, one has to perfect their writing abilities to produce a high quality paper that bases around the standard essay format. For complex projects in science, you need to be more analytical and interpretive to get the accurate inferences of the data collected in your writing.
• In addition, you look for a quiet and conducive environment that is free from unnecessary distractions to earn the greatest concentration required for thinking and writing. Switching off TV  and logging out from all social media accounts help in reducing external distractions.

Supporting Materials – deal breaker for writing a coursework 

Supporting materials are defined as the evidencing materials that are included in the writing to reinforce the theories explained. For example table, graphs, charts, and images are mostly applicable and relevant in subjects such as geography and sciences. Supporting materials are written in the appendix part of a paper to avoid cluttering of information in the main part of the paper. For instance, the coursework focus is survey oriented, you could put the raw survey responses, survey templates, questionnaires, in an appendix and present the analysis and discussions in the main body of the coursework.

Finalizing Your Coursework

The steps on how to finish a coursework is easy as it necessitates one to edit their papers prior to the submission. Prior to the submission, students would have time to proffered and confirm features such as word count, word choice, grammar errors, spellings as well as the punctuation mistakes. It is advisable to carry out a manual proofreading as the modern spell checking and grammar checking software can overlook some common mistakes. Importantly, a student is required to include in-text citation according to the writing style used. A well-written coursework is thought-provoking, enjoyable for the reader and enhances the reader’s knowledge.

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What’s so bad about coursework?

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I imagine many teachers breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after Michael Gove abandoned his plans to scrap GCSEs in key subjects in England and replace them with English Baccalaureate Certificates.

However his announcement made it clear he still plans to phase out coursework and modular learning in favour of traditional end-of-year exams , despite coursework nowadays being carried out under staff supervision in the classroom.

There seems to be a generally accepted view that GCSEs are the easy option when it comes to exams, and coursework is the easy option when it comes to GCSEs. This is nothing new – mine was the third school year to sits GCSEs in 1990 and, even back then, I can remember feeling a bit deflated, once I’d received my grades, at all the talk in the press about standards slipping.

To be honest, I absolutely hated coursework when I was at school as it made me work much harder. For once I couldn’t rely just on my wits. I was one of those irritating kids who could cram loads of information in my brain over a short period of time and then regurgitate it onto an exam paper to great success. I once got 97% in an exam during the final year of my degree. Of course, a few days later I’d forgotten pretty much everything I’d memorised. If I’d had to resit the exam on the spot, I’d have been lucky to scrape a pass.

But it seems that the further someone progresses through further and higher education, the more assessments rely upon coursework and “bite-size” modules over end-of-year exams. My MA was assessed entirely on essays written over the course of a couple of years. Similarly my PhD was judged almost solely on the basis of a 100,000 word dissertation that took four years to write, with only a short oral ‘viva’ examination at the end. Yet no-one was complaining that I was benefiting from lowering standards or accusing me of cheating when I finally passed these qualifications.

I guess it all comes down to what is the purpose of qualifications. If they are genuinely to prepare people for the world of employment and demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired, then written exam papers seem a strange, narrow-minded way of going about this. I struggle to think of a single profession where you are required to work day-to-day under exam-type conditions without interacting with anyone else or using a computer or the internet.

In many ways, I suppose for me stand-up comedy was a good career choice for me given my ability to think on my feet in written examinations. Each comedy gig is like a mini-exam where I pass or fail according to how many people laugh at me; and every summer I take my material to the Edinburgh Fringe in order to be graded by faceless reviewers. In fact it almost feels like I’m doing my GCSEs all over again, year after year. I imagine this to be some people’s worst nightmare!

In contrast to exams, coursework enables students to demonstrate they can work on a task over a period of time and bring it to completion. It’s more inclusive, catering for different learning styles. For practical subjects such as drama, it’s a much more suited method of assessment.

Put it this way, if you were an employer, would you rather hire the person who could demonstrate they can undertake a project and bring it to completion; or the person who could demonstrate they can cram loads of facts and then regurgitate them on cue?

After all, if coursework is good enough for post-graduate level then why not GCSEs?

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COURSEWORK GUIDES

You have art coursework and need to research artworks for it. Where do you start? How do you find relevant inspiration? How have other artists approached the themes?Our thematic coursework guides provide ideas and inspiration to get you started. Try our 'Have A Go!' section at the bottom of our guides for activities to keep you motivated!

2023 Coursework Guides

Past coursework guides, we recommend, closeness and simplicity to nature coursework guide.

From the gardens and paradise to land art, discover the artworks in our collection that explore the themes of closeness and proximity to nature

Complex and simple movement coursework guide

From machines to humans, discover the artworks in our collection that explore the themes of simple and complex movement

Simple processes, complex outcomes coursework guide

From optical illusions and repeating forms to instructions, discover the artworks in our collection that explore the theme of simple processes, complex outcomes

Details and the uncanny coursework guide

From photoreal to dreams, discover the artworks in our collection that explore the themes of details and the uncanny

Layers Coursework Guide

From stacking and painting to collage and hidden layers, discover the artworks in our collection that explores the techniques of layering

Objects Coursework Guide

From the uncanny and personal to advertisement and politics, discover the artworks in our collection that explores the themes of object

Senses Coursework Guide

From touch and taste to sight and smell, discover the artworks in our collection that explores the themes of the senses

Reflection Coursework Guide

From mirror and glass to water and fractals, discover the artworks in our collection that explores the themes and techniques of reflection

Weather Coursework Guide

From sun worshipers, cloud gazers and storm chasers to artists who use the weather to explore broader themes and ideas

Materials Coursework Guide

From 'usual' to unlikely art materials: explore textures, qualities, techniques and symbolism of things artists use to make their work

Still Life Coursework Guide

Not just fruit and flowers, explore still lifes from realistic to abstract and familiar to unexpected

Dynamism and Movement Coursework Guide

Explore how artists use marks and colour to suggest motion or make kinetic, performance and video art to explore movement

Landmarks Coursework Guide

From art about landmarks to art that is itself a landmark: get some inspiration on the theme of landmarks

Diary Coursework Guide

From sketchbooks to video diaries and the everyday to big life events, explore how artists use diaries to record the world around them

Mark Making Coursework Guide

Explore the different ways artists use marks and expressive qualities

Outline Coursework Guide

Discover surprising ways artists use outlines in art from graphic to graffiti or abstract and animated

Clothing Coursework Guide

Explore art and fashion, from clothes and identity to shapes, patterns and textures of clothing inspired by art

Masks Coursework Guide

Explore how artists have used masks in their work, to protect, disguise, hide and amuse

Trees Coursework Guide

From atmosphere and symbolism to textures and abstract shapes, explore how trees have inspired artists

Memory Coursework Guide

Explore memories of the past, memories of people and fading memories to see how artists recall and reminisce in art

Food Coursework Guide

Can a humble bag of chips or slice of pizza become a masterpiece? Explore some tasty art about food

Colour Coursework Guide

Explore how different artists have used colour in their work and sketches

Form Coursework Guide

What exactly is form? And how can you explore it in your sketchbook?

Play Coursework Guide

What does play mean for you? Is it sports, or music? Perhaps it’s drifting into a personal imaginary world, or maybe it’s social – board games, card games, or just meeting others

Underwater Coursework Guide

About 70 percent of the Earth is covered in water. It’s probably the least-explored part of our planet - we’ve explored more of space than the oceans. But maybe because of that, for artists, water has been a theme, a subject and even a medium to work with

Line Coursework Guide

See how artists use the power of a line and try some ideas in your sketchbook

Tone Coursework Guide

Learn how you can use tone in your sketchbook

Transmission Coursework Guide

Discover works in which artists explore the complex ways humans spread thoughts and ideas

Isolation Coursework Guide

Recently we have all had to deal with long and short periods of isolation. How have artists explored the ideas of isolation in their work, and what can you learn from those experiences?

Mother and Child Coursework Guide

Discover tender images of new mums and babies and artists' in-depth explorations of mother and child relationships

Journeys Coursework Guide

From physical journeys and migration to journeys of self-discovery, get ideas and inspiration about journeys in art

Relationship Coursework Guide

Exploring relationships in art, as a connection or association between people, things or ideas

Letters and Words Coursework Guide

Discover how artists use letters and words in their art

Force Coursework Guide

From forces of nature and forceful feelings to force as a method, explore how artists have used force in art

Ritual Coursework Guide

What is a ritual? Discover how ritual has been used as a theme in art

Self-Image Coursework Guide

Explore how artists have represented themselves, and others, using portraiture

Transformation Coursework Guide

Explore how artists have transformed objects and ideas through their work

Details Coursework Guide

Explore the theme of details through works in our collection

Human Figure Coursework Guide

Explore people drawn, painted or sculpted from life and art that explores abstract ideas about being human

Sorry, no image available

News and Event Coursework Guide

Look at artists responses to news, from headline-grabbing events and social or political issues, to stories of the extraordinary everyday

Light and Dark Coursework Guide

Look at artworks made from light and shadow to the symbolic use of light and dark to make powerful statements

Interwoven Coursework Guide

Explore art that interweaves materials, ideas, experiences and histories

Perspective Coursework Guide

From vanishing points to points of view, explore perspective in art

Spaces Coursework Guide

Busy crowded streets, eerie empty rooms, explore spaces in art

Habitats Coursework Guide

From art about home life to art that highlights the impact of climate change and pollution on natural habitats

Texture Coursework Guide

Explore textures in art from woven textures and textured fabrics and materials to gestural marks and patterns

Toys Coursework Research

From pop art to gender politics, see toys in a new light and get some inspiration for your coursework

Myths and Legends Coursework Guide

Be inspired by myths and legends – or create your own!

Changed Identity Coursework Guide

From changing their own identities to changing the identity of objects, how have artists explored the theme of changed identity?

Space Coursework Guide

From the space race to heavenly bodies, find some coursework inspiration

Plastics Coursework Guide

Explore plastic in art for some research inspiration

Old and New Coursework Guide

Uncover ways of thinking of Old and New in art

Circus Coursework Guide

Uncover ways of exploring the theme of Circus for coursework inspiration

Rhythm Coursework Guide

Explore artworks with rhythm for some coursework inspiration

Geometric Coursework Guide

Maths meets art to inspire your coursework

Moments in Time Coursework Guide

See how artists respond to moments in time to inspire your coursework

Crowded Coursework Guide

Pack in tightly for some inspiration for your coursework

16-25? Join Tate Collective for £5 exhibition tickets

Student resources.

Discover more for students from Tate

Create Like an Artist

How to make art inspired by artists like Rachel Whiteread, Andy Warhol and Frank Bowling

How to Write a Coursework

Coursework projects do not resemble essays, research papers, or dissertations. They are the combination of all three. Students spend less time writing coursework than on making a term paper, but this type of work requires more time and efforts than an ordinary essay - it is made of several essays. Thanks to our guide, each student can discover how to write coursework. If you are running out of time or lack experience to complete the specific coursework, we recommend using our coursework writing services to hire professional academic writers.

What is Coursework and Why Does It Matter?

Coursework definition: General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) coursework is a typical academic assignment, given in the course of study to evaluate the student’s knowledge, skills, and identify the final grade. Many students face this type of writing in the US colleges. One of the examples is a coursework UTD (The University of Texas at Dallas) - the requirements of this institution are strict, and many students fail to submit their papers and pass the corresponding courses.

Such type of assignment helps to have the ‘detective’ hat on: a student observes, examines, and evaluates the chosen topic using credible, up-to-date, and relevant sources. Working under controlled conditions is important. Participating in every school class will help to prepare good coursework by the end of the term. Take a look at the examples of what students of various profiles may face:

• English Composition - English coursework is an extended essay in most cases. A student has a right to pick the topic. The tutors provide their students with the list of recommended titles to choose from, sources to observe & analyze, and a format (e.g., a comparison between different relevant articles)
• Sciences - coursework for science is a complicated assignment. Such type of work appears in the form of a scientific paper to test what a writer investigates and reports independently.
• Geography - geography coursework is about collecting, reporting, and explaining information to reply to a certain geographical question or offer solutions to the problem. One idea is to explore the usage of a shopping mall or analyze the recent tornado. No matter whether you have to prepare a coursework Columbia or such paper for other educational institutions, keep in mind these differences!

Types of Coursework Explained

English Language coursework is the most common type of this assignment. At advanced GCE level, the student will be expected to write a couple of essays, totaling 3,000 words. Every assignment is 20 marks maximum.

An analytical essay : Evaluate, compare, & contrast 3 different sources of data interconnected by a common theme; written /spoken / multimedia content. Discuss different uses for targeting various audiences. Learn more on our blog.

Original essay with a supportive commentary : A student will have to come up with a single piece of media writing in the observed modes (written, spoken, or multimodal). Add a supporting piece with details about the aspects of English language. English Language & Literature coursework is a bit different. The basic requirements are the same, and the parts are:

An analytical study : Sharing an analysis of the chosen piece and its relation to the related content. It will show how well the writer understands the original piece. Tutors grade such works based on the:

• Use of the proper terminology and the coherence of the written words;
• Understanding & evaluation of the way a structure, form, and language create the written & spoken word;
• Opportunity to observe relationships between various pieces of writing.

Creative writing & commentary : Produce a creative piece that imitates the style of the assessed text. Share comments to backup your understanding. The goal is to show the knowledge, prove the competence, and use appropriate language skills in communicating with the target audience. You will also need a relevant coursework resume (review) in both cases. Keep on reading to learn how to write coursework of A level.

How to Write a Coursework: Guide for Students

Several factors may lead to the coursework being disqualified. It is a serious matter! The risk factors include:

• Plagiarism - it is the worst thing that could happen to any type of academic assignment. Lots of relevant information is available on the world wide web today, and the tutors are strict about the issue of plagiarism. Write everything in your own words! If you decide to insert the quotes from the sources, apply the suggested citation format and develop a list of references. Sign the declaration claiming it is your original project. If you're unsure about how to approach this, seeking professional help by choosing to write my coursework can be a wise decision.
• Word count - do not ignore the specific requirements concerning the length of the coursework. Specify if the footnotes, appendices, & references are included in the word count.
• Topics - go through the list of available themes. If there is an examination planned on the specific topic, try to pick another idea for the coursework.
• Tutor’s assistance - do not ignore the help of your instructor, ask them to provide guidance on what to write. Ask the questions to learn more details, but keep in mind they can go through the 1st draft once and just offer some general recommendations.

Choosing a Topic for Your Project

Dedicate enough time to this extra important question. Select the field of your interest if it is possible to relate it to the course. That is the golden rule of choosing a coursework topic - keep in mind the rest of the hints:

• Analyze the offered list of topics or develop yours
• Pick a topic from the area of your expertise related to the studied subject
• Select the topic you are interested in
• Choose the topic you’ve started to observe in the past
• Check how much relevant, up-to-date information is available on the Internet about each of the topics
• Pick what you can measure, change, & control (they call it a ‘fair test’)
• Use the ideas of previous researchers and students
• Do not choose a topic with a vast scope - you risk struggling to research it correctly

10 Good Coursework Topics

• Non-traditional Forms of Poetry with TC Tolbert
• Documentary Foundations: Usage of Oral Histories with Beth Alvarado
• Traditional Forms of Poetry
• Hermit Crabs: Type of Fiction
• Writing the Autobiographical Poem
• Creative Non-Fiction on the Examples of New Journalists
• Authors without Borders
• Writing the Sticky Stuff
• Socially Engaged Literary Arts
• Common Vocabulary

Research & Data Collection

Research is an integral part of coursework. Have you written research papers before? If yes, you will find it easier to select proper primary & secondary sources and gather the necessary information (evidence to support the main point - thesis). Depending on the required paper format, cite & reference the following sources:

• Books & e-Books

Base the project on a specific hypothesis. The research must start with minimum one hypothesis. The research stage for some topics may consist of visiting websites to collect information. Leave another time for collecting the data as it is the heart of the research. Three methods of data collection are known:

• Direct personal investigation : The one an author does individually (using literature and findings from previous studies);
• Interview/Questionnaire : The researcher should gather the data from the respondents asking questions regarding required data;
• Discussion with community leaders : Community leaders are approached to fetch information for the necessary data.

In case a student works on a scientific experiment, they should pay attention to planning the analysis with the help of rigorous scientific methods (keeping in mind the Health & Safety precautions you take). Review background information and theories. Take notes to express what you expect to occur to compare & contrast it to what happened in real life. In the write-up stage, one has to evaluate and present the findings.

Writing a Coursework Outline

The writing process follows the research. Do not start it without preparing an action plan and scheduling the work - a paper pin for English coursework is based on an extended essay . An outline will look different for the science coursework projects. The goal of creating a plan is to prevent a writer from being disorganized and waffling.

Let us explain coursework outline on the specific example - a project on the global pursuit of lower costs and the role of human rights.

Start with the brief introduction explaining why it might be a topic of interest for many people. Mention those vast corporations like Wal-Mart abuse human rights by choosing and using child labor in the factories.

Provide an overview of the problem . Define human rights and costs. Pick the definitions from the official dictionaries and cite them properly when inserting in the text. Try to explain the terms in your own words.

Develop a body of the coursework , start with the case for & against ethical business practices. Using evidence and examples, list the arguments supporting ethical business practices and another side of the coin. Include a business case for ethical practices after the opening body paragraph.

Move to discussing ethical responsibilities ; explain why business organizations should care about the ethical aspects of their activities. After three sections of the body, one can conclude the paper. It can be a good idea to share a fact or statistics stressing the importance of research problem in the essay conclusion. End up with the reference list that may look this way:

• Klein N (2000) No Logo (Flamingo, London)
• Marcousé I, Gillespie A, Martin B, Surridge M and Wall N (2003) Business Studies 2e (Hodder Arnold, Oxon)
• Royal Dutch Shell (2006) 4th Quarter Financial Report at (site example)

Additional Elements

Supporting materials and pictures are a must! The sciences & geography projects require tables, charts, graphs, and other types of images to illustrate the complicated topic. Not only should you add the pictures - it is essential to interpret and reference each of them. A separate part of the coursework where the student list and explains every visual element is Appendix , and it is an optional part. The presence of appendix increases the chances to earn an A+.

How to Write an Introduction for Coursework?

Most of the students underestimate the role of introduction & conclusion when it comes to writing an essay. An eye-catchy introduction is a key to success. The primary purposes of a coursework introduction are:

• To grab the reader’s attention
• To introduce the topic
• To explain the research importance
• To come up with a compelling thesis statement

The opening paragraph shows the depth of the writer’s acquaintance with the topic. Look at the expert tips below. They will help to learn how to write a coursework introduction to make the tutor want to read your entire paper.

What Is an Introduction?

The introduction of GCSE coursework is the opening paragraph that aims to interpret the central questions and purposes of the entire paper. It should have several elements to be effective. Those are:

• A hook sentence
• Background information
• Problem significance
• Solid thesis statement

Advice from our Experienced Writer

How to write an introduction to coursework? The quality of this part predetermines paper’s success. Look at some common mistakes writers do while working on the coursework introduction - try to prevent them!

Ignoring the prompt. Many students tend to neglect the tutor’s instructions. It is critical to read the prompt several times, highlight the main points, research question, rules, and grading rubric details.

Missing a plan. The prompt does not always say to develop a coursework outline. Without a plan for every separate section, it is impossible to write a flawless piece step-by-step. No matter whether you have to write a term paper, research paper, dissertation, or C3 coursework, get ready with the detailed plan. Once you understand how to write an introduction, it will be easier to develop the rest of the paper.

For those who need a helping hand in ensuring their work meets all the standards and deadlines, don't hesitate to buy coursework from trusted professionals.

Related Articles

Teaching & Learning

Designing effective online assessment

A staff guide to planning online assessments as an alternative to face-to-face invigilated exams.

Jump straight to the Guide to effective online assessment . 

Guidance for planning your online assessments

Centrally managed assessments will continue to be remote and online this academic year, in line with the agreed 2021/22 UCL  Assessment Operating Model . All centrally managed exams will be delivered through AssessmentUCL, the university’s dedicated digital assessment platform.  For regulatory purposes, the Assessment Operating Model for 2021/22 groups assessments into defined categories with discrete regulations. The majority of assessments should fall into these groups, but there may be occasions where an assessment is difficult to categorise. Departments should contact  [email protected]  if they need assistance in this area.

The alternative assessment suggestions will fit into one of the six assessment types that are described below:  

• Controlled Condition Exams  - Online exams which replicate, as far as possible, the strictly controlled conditions in a face-to-face exam hall. The exam duration accurately reflects the amount of time which a student should spend on the assessment. 
• Take-Home Papers  - Open-book assignments with durations of 24 hours to 7 days. Students are expected to work on the assignment for a maximum of eight hours in any 24-hour period. 
• Quizzes & In-class Tests  - Short tests and quizzes, typically worth no more than 10% of a module. 
• Practical Exams  - Practical assessments with a short, fixed duration such as presentations, group presentations, vivas, clinical exams, OSCEs, lab tests etc. 
• Dissertations/ Research Projects  - Extended, in-depth coursework assignments involving research and independent study. 
• Coursework and Other Assessments  - Assignments where students are typically given a few weeks to complete the assessment. Includes essays, reports, portfolios, artefacts, exhibitions etc. Where an assessment does not fit into one of the other categories, it nominally falls under the 'coursework' regulations. 

This practical guide has been developed to help staff to rethink assessments and to signpost to further support. You can download the full guide as a Word document or dip in and out of sections on this page, below.  

We appreciate this may seem daunting at first; replacing face-to-face, unseen, invigilated exams with more appropriate online forms that will work in a variety of on- and off-campus situations is a complex task.  The 'Effective online assessment guide' will provide information about when specific assessments might be used, their pros and cons, and considerations for going digital.  Where available, we will also point to case studies of each approach in use.  

Engaging students in assessment design

Many of the approaches available to staff provide opportunities for students to contribute to the assessment design, development and quality assurance processes.  For example, students can:

• help to design guidance that is clear, meaningful and meaningful and effective;
• advise you about particular difficulties that their peers might have in complying with requirements that might not be obvious to the assessment designers;
• provide feedback on formats and approaches that require technologies and applications that students may not have at home (good broadband, exclusive use of laptops, the correct software, quiet places to work etc;
• advise on appropriate modes and timings for feedback.

UCL has been home to Disruptive thinking since 1826 - 2020/21 is a time to innovate your assessment and feedback practice. Change inevitably will entail effort and risk - whatever approaches you decide to implement, remember to act with compassion to students, as well as being patient and understanding to ourselves and our colleagues.

Guide to effective online assessment

Exam-based alternatives.

Keywords | Formative or summative  | When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Timed exam; closed book exam; take home exam; open book exam; multiple choice exam; remote exam; offline exam.

Used for formative or summative assessment

When to use.

These are accessed online, completed, and then submitted by a specific deadline.

They require appropriately designed questions that do not over-rely on memory and recall, but instead on interpretation and analysis. Students are required to complete questions during a set period e.g. 24 /48/72, etc hours They are often used in professional related disciplines and reflect authentic tasks.   

The key point is that students can access materials during the exam, so they require appropriate question-setting and student preparation

• Without reliance on memorising, the focus moves from recollection to usage of information, so the formats are potentially more authentic;
• can be implemented relatively easily in different environments and contexts;
• can allow students to make successively better drafts;
• can require fewer ‘reasonable adjustments’ for students who need these in traditional invigilated exams;
• are more accessible for those who may typically struggle with the practical aspects associated with time-constrained paper-based written exams;
• can test a range of skills including analysis of a range of data types and sources;
• students with poor memories are not disadvantaged;
• can remove stress for students who do not thrive in the ‘sudden death’ environment of the traditional exam hall;
• can help reframe learning for students who adopt surface approaches to learning in order to ‘cram’ purely for unseen exam questions, rather than assimilate knowledge for longer term application;
• useful assimilation and organisation skills for future work and employment opportunities.

Disadvantages

• Some students will write at excessive length, packing all they can find into their answers without recognising that different approaches are needed for this kind of paper. This makes marking unmanageable;
• students are generally unfamiliar with this method of assessment and will need guidance for preparation. students should be discouraged from thinking it is an easy exam so do not need to revise, plan or prepare in advance;
• can disadvantage students with hectic home lives, with poor internet access or limited it kit (some just work on phones);
• the tight time-limit compared to a standard assignment can be hugely stressful for some students;
• raises concerns about whose work is actually being submitted.

What it can assess

Take home assessments are best used where there is a large range of complex information and data that needs to be mastered in order to demonstrate an understanding of an area of study. Students still need to have a thorough knowledge of the information, how to use it and where to find it.

This method can develop skills in organising large quantities or information, synthesis, and the ability to identify key data and information quickly and accurately.

Considerations (workload, timings, inclusiveness, etc)

Designing good questions is a skill which teachers need to practise to develop effectively.

It is important to set clear expectations  about how long is reasonable to spend on the task (our regulations suggest 8 hours (plus 2 hours for Sstudents with SORAs) per 24 hour period), and to provide a word limit. 

Students are likely to need guidance on what referencing standards you require: as used in a traditional exam (i.e. barely) or full references as required in a standard assignment.

Design (weighting, type balance, etc)

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules.

Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

Considerations for going digital and challenges for staff

Some thought is required to build in mechanisms for verifying it’s the students’ own work. The use of Turnitin may be an important consideration.  There is provision in the regulations for an investigatory viva where contract cheating is suspected: Where there is suspicion of Contract Cheating, the Chair of the Departmental Panel may, with the approval of the Faculty Tutor, initiate an investigatory viva to establish authorship.

Links to case studies and further information and readings

• Why Open-book tests deserve a place in your course
• Converting to online exams

In tray; box exercise.

Can be used for both.

Students are presented with a hard copy or virtual dossier of documents and other resources to review well before the exam with no idea of the questions being asked.

They are given ample time to review and annotate these resources in preparation.

When the question is presented, they respond to the situation, drawing on the resources in the dossier to support their choices of actions/ recommendations in a time constrained context.

For example, in a Nursing exam, students could be provided with a typical ward managers in-box for the day and be asked to draw up staff rotas, drug rounds etc. for the day. To make the exam as authentic as possible part way through the exam they could be asked to respond in real time to changing context e.g. a road traffic accident and say how their work plans/ priorities would change and why.

Another variation to the in-tray exam could be to ask students to work on preleased material, such as a case study, which students are then asked to critique under exam conditions.

Alternatively, they could be asked to design a resource or a strategic plan in advance, and in the exam they are then asked to adjust it to accommodate a ‘curveball’ to the original scenario, such as needing to respond to a pandemic, or new policy guidelines, as a test of their ability to think critically, and think on their feet.

• This kind of assessment is strong on authenticity, as it measures the skills the candidates will need in their future careers;
• students can demonstrate their fitness-to-practice by justifying how they would decide to do what they chose to do;
• if the reading/preparatory opportunity is offered in advance and tasks/new incidents are represented in real time this approach mitigates against plagiarism and tends to be regarded as a fair judgment of students’ abilities to think on the spot;
• pre-release also allows more time for reading, for those who require it (traditional in-tray exams expect students to read the dossier in the first part of a timed exam period).
• There tends to be a great deal of preparation in putting together the documents and materials required (although the resources can be used in a modified form in future years if the questions and incidents are different);
• if real-time incidents are offered mid-exam to test students’ flexibility, these are reliant on students’ ready access to secure and stable internet links.

Skills; quick thinking; decision making.

Relatively high workload in preparing documents and materials. 

In-tray exercises in paper form have been used for many years in many contents including accountancy and medicine.

The drawback of hard copy unseen versions tended to be the complexity of providing paper documents for each candidate within the exam setting: this is no longer a problem if virtual assessments are undertaken.

MCQs typically require students to choose correct answers from, for example, five presented, although a variety of other computer-supported formats include ‘best match’, ‘drag and drop’, labelling diagrams, marking crucial points on graphs, answering questions on case study scenarios, completing text by filling in gaps in cloze question formats, and many others.

MCQ can be paper-based or online.

Basic use tests knowledge recall but more complex variations can test higher-level thinking, especially where answers are similar but only one is correct.

Keywords | Formative or summative  | Ease of setting up |  When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

MCQ; MCA; drag and drop; best match; cloze.

Either or both – if summative, recommend formative for practice. Can be used in synchronous or asynchronous environments to provide opportunities to steer/tailor subsequent taught session or as time on task following a taught session.

Ease of setting up

Moodle quizzes are easy to set up. They can be used for module assessment or self-assessment. Multiple kinds of questions are possible including multiple-choice questions and multiple-choice answers.

Time will be required to build the questions depending on the complexity of the questions, and the experience of the tutor.

It has been successfully used for training of students in a given topic along with formative assessment, summative assessment of CWs and also exams. (see list of examples and tips from users below)

• Efficient for rapid testing of factual material;
• well suited to large cohort;
• instant feedback to students;
• marking is automated, straightforward, and fast (moderation is recommended for consistency);
• can connects with Moodle gradebook;
• good track record of their summative usage in disciplines including Medicine and Engineering;
• content coverage rather than question-spotting is good - can cover a full range of module or programme;
• over time a question bank can be developed, which eases some of the following disadvantages (time sink);
• tests can be randomised so no two students get the same questions in the same order;
• students can access or re-take during revision period;
• enables randomization of questions;
• can be time-restricted within a time window;
• scope for varying complexity;
• reusable from year to year (if using large question bank);
• convenient for students via Moodle through single sign-on;
•  easy to handle reasonable adjustments (SoRAs) through group overrides etc.
• Time needed to build the question bank - questions must also be piloted to determine facility values and discrimination indices to select which questions are suitable to include in summative tests;
• expertise needed in question design, subject content;
• poorly designed questions make passing by guesswork easy;
• students may not engage in a serious way – “just an online quiz”;
• students may not check correct answers or put in work to understand why they were wrong.

It is a reliable way to check student knowledge.

MCQs require quick thinking, decision making, and sometimes strategies to gauge the best answer if unsure or purposefully phrased.

The design of questions and overall assessment determines what kinds of skill can be assessed to address the needs of different disciplines (particularly those with external accreditation).

These include:

• recall (especially of core knowledge)
• application/analysis skills
• interpretation
• While marking is automated (some time required for moderation/consistency), the workload is front-loaded in the design, preparation and testing of questions;
• Good practice suggests using questions which are multipart, the first seeking the correct or best answer, the second part seeking the rationale for the choice, potentially a third requiring students to say how certain they are that the answer is correct. incorporating penalties for incorrect answers can discourage guessing answers;
• technical support for staff to set up moodle quizzes;
• technical support for events during assessment (support can be provided retrospectively) – internet issues;  
• moodle permissions etc., to decide on mitigation considerations.

Weight of the assignment and time commitment expected from the students is highly customizable.

This type of assignment can be used at any point within the course, and it provides immediate feedback to the students. Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• Bandwidth/moodle capacity during assessment window may be a constraint especially if larger modules are more likely to do this kind of assessment;
• different browsers may display equations, etc, differently;
• resilience of question banks from year to year, when moodle snapshot occurs;
• end user internet speed/reliability – if this is picked up in moodle logs, this is easy to handle though extenuating circumstances;
• if students complete the tests online simultaneously in different time-zones, some may be assessed at unsocial hours;
• providing a longer time window for completion may allow students to share questions and answers.
• Successful examples and observations/tips from users ;
• Case study of a successful implementation of complex quizzes ; Poster
• Technical guide on Moodle quizzes
• Technical guide on STACK online assessment for mathematics and science .

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is a type of examination often, but not only, used in health sciences. It is designed to test clinical skill performance and competence in a range of skills. It is a practical, real-world approach to learning and assessment.

Keywords | Formative or summative   |  When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

OSCE; medical professional; digital skills.

It can be used for both forms of assessment.

An OSCE is a well-established format of assessment that tests a series of integrated tasks. It is common in medical and allied medical professionals’ assessment but has also been used in aerospace industry, business, law and engineering amongst others.

A vOSCE is testing the same tasks but in a virtual environment. It involves a series of timed task/stations involving a mixture of role players, video clips, practical skills, and written tasks e.g. prescribing.

It allows candidates to be thoroughly tested in a timely manner whilst preserving patient (and candidate) safety.

Initial set up is complicated and time consuming. Stations/tasks need to be selected carefully and modified for a virtual environment. Students, role players, examiners and administrative staff all need considerable training. A run through with admin, examiners and role players prior to the assessment is required. It is also difficult (but not impossible) to run a circuit with large numbers of candidates.

In medicine, we test communication skills, clinical and practical skills, interpretation of data (clinical signs, results, images), team working, prescribing, note keeping, ethics and law, professionalism.

• Requires a significant lead in period to ensure that candidates are taught appropriate skills e.g. performing a remote consultation;
• Requires admin staff that are familiar with the remote platform which is being used in the assessment;
• Actual circuit takes longer and requires more staff than traditional OSCE.

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• Do you have the IT expertise to make video clips?
• Do you have enough admin staff to be able to ‘host’ the stations?
• Have you taught your students the appropriate skills?
• The medical school held a vOSCE on 23 June, 2020. Please contact Alison Sturrock for further details.
• OSCE guidance from GeekyMedics.com

Coursework-based alternatives 

Note: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) could be used for both purposes. 

This is an umbrella term that includes many different types of assessment that are not formal, time-constrained written examinations.

Coursework may comprise of many of the assessments listed in this guidance such as essays, multiple choice/answer (MCQs), online tests, oral presentations, book reviews, group projects, reports, multimedia artefacts, etc.

Coursework; authentic; skills; work-based; groupwork; teamwork; collaborative.

Both. Summative coursework is compulsory and results in grades; formative coursework offers students opportunities for receiving feedback on their progress and to prepare for their summative (coursework or exam) assessment.

Ease of setting up

Varied.  The workload may be high if you are creating marking criteria and rubrics from scratch.

You will also need to provide feedback on work in a timely way that feeds into subsequent assessments, and/or set up reliable peer-assessment. See guidance on specific assessments below.

Coursework should be constructively aligned to the module or programme learning outcomes. Each coursework component should therefore relate strongly to one or more of these.

Ideally, all summative coursework should be informed by a prior formative assessment, with standards clearly communicated through the use of clear briefs which provide details of expectations, deadlines, marking criteria, rubrics, work count (or equivalence) and examples of guided marking.

A  common complaint of students is the clarity of expectations and standards.

Coursework allows students to demonstrate and receive actionable feedback, on a variety of knowledge and skills that do not rely on a high degree of memorisation.

There are many diverse possibilities and formats which can align closely to the learning outcomes, especially if these test the development of application of knowledge in an authentic setting or develop employability focused skills.

Coursework can develop students’ ability to  work independently in making their own judgements and provide opportunities for team- and groupwork. It enables continuous assessment of progress and maintains students’ motivation. It is ideal for developing student self- regulation.

Using more than one assessment format can improve the quality of the information used to calculate course grades.

It can be time-consuming to set up and design the brief (see ‘when to use above’).

Striking a good  balance of student workload where they work to a high level and meet standards but don’t overwork can be challenging.

It is also important to be realistic about the volume of assessment and avoid an over heavy marking workload where timely feedback to students may be compromised.

It is particularly good for assessing individual and groupwork, and making assessment authentic.

It can be time-consuming to set up and design the brief.

Design (weighting, type, balance, etc)

Coursework promotes formative assessment, however UCL does not permit marks for participation in online forums.

There are many other ways to encourage students to participate and take responsibility by evidencing their input and contribution to the module/programme:

• at the start of the module set clear expectations – e.g. everyone should contribute at least one post per week (responsibility is on them);
• ensure you step in regularly and comment on posts; stating specific times in the week when you will respond on the forums, and communicating how you will respond, will allow you to respond judiciously  and reduces students’ anxiety that you haven’t see their responses, as well as reducing traffic to your staff email;
• set tasks that have to be completed each week and which link students in pairs or groups, so they are responsible to someone else in their group;
• create tasks that are linked over several weeks and culminate in a larger input (either individual or group) so they have to maintain participation in order to complete them;
• it is valid to ask students to all submit evidence of their postings at points in the course – they can each select the two they think are ‘strong’ examples of responses to a task or a discussion activity with others;
• you can make minor amendments to the validation documents for your modules to add in some/all of these kinds of requirements but note that they are not graded content as the use of marks for ‘showing up’ is not something we want to encourage;
•  ask for a reflection on their learning through their forum activity as part of their summative coursework assessment.
• Kreiter CD, Gordon JA, Elliott S, Callaway M. Recommendations for assigning weights to component tests to derive an overall grade. Teach Learn Med. 2004;16(2):133-138. doi:10.1207/s15328015tlm1602_3
• Assessment mapping template

Portfolio; employability; creative; media; collection.

Students submit collections of work in hard copy format or, more usually nowadays, electronic format demonstrating the achievement of the course learning outcomes through systematically structured evidence.

Portfolios are particularly useful in practical / applied disciplines where evidence can be provided in very diverse forms including text, image, video, audio, practice notebooks etc.

Students can also use a portfolio as a modern CV. By building a library of their achievements over the course of their degree they can subsequently showcase example of their skills to prospective employers.

• They allow learners to present wide-ranging evidence of achievement, and to show originality and creativity alongside mastery of subject knowledge;
• portfolios can be maintained over a considerable time scale. They show development and can be useful evidence of achievement to show to prospective employers, so authenticity can be high;
• digital formats especially amenable to designing-in and tracking dialogic feedback processes, including uptake/subsequent action over time;
• the personalised nature of the portfolio can also help to ‘design out’ plagiarism by promoting a sense of student voice/ownership and, hence, promote academic integrity.
• Hard copy portfolios tend to be bulky to submit, handle and store; online portfolios may be difficult to upload to some repositories where file size is restricted;
• portfolios take time to mark, especially if volume/length constraints are not provided;
• assessment reliability can be quite low as different assessors tend to look for different things when assessing wide-ranging evidence of achievement.

What it can assess

Digital and academic skills; knowledge; personal growth; development of ideas.

• Provide clear guidance on maximum timings for video/audio material included, otherwise assessors can spend many hours scrolling through material;
• be aware that portfolios often include components that may increase assessment volume, especially if this mode of assessment applies to several modules the student is taking at the same time;
• it is helpful to provide a matrix demonstrating how evidence aligns with learning outcomes alongside a guide to the evidence provided in the portfolio, advising students that assessors will rely strongly on these to help them select which evidence to sample (i.e. they don’t promise to read/ view every word of the whole portfolio). You might, additionally, ask learners to submit an executive summary, self-evaluation or similar, in which you require them to reflect on where, and how, their portfolio components demonstrate they meet the learning outcomes/criteria or critically review what has been learned;
• you may need to support students to appreciate what critical reflection or critical thinking looks like.

The components in a portfolio can be hidden if it is expressed as a single summative assessment. Assessment volume might be very high, especially if portfolio is used in coexisting modules. Ensure that your assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• A variety of sophisticated and simple software tools e.g. Mahara, MS Office productivity tools or a blogging tool, such as UCL Reflect can be used to make it easier for students to collect and structure portfolio elements;
• as with many innovative formats, assignment checklists can help guide student effort appropriately and aid the marking process, too;
• it is useful to consider issues of curation, feedback processes and whole-of-programme focus to maximise ongoing developmental learning opportunities, as opposed to having an exclusive focus on recording achievement.
• Preparing students for the workplace: why I introduced digital assessments (case study)
• Reflect blogging platform

A patchwork consists of a variety of small completed sections that although planned in advance, is finalised retrospectively, when the ‘patches’ are ‘stitched together’. It is similar but different to portfolio assessment.

Keywords | Formative or summative   |  When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

patchwork; components.

Each ‘patch’ is carefully designed, as part of a larger pattern, to act as a pivotal learning moment (so patchwork assessment is not synonymous with portfolio assessment).

Patchwork processes involve students in the ongoing and cumulative formative production of their materials, whereby meanings are linked and built by the student over time. Patches are ultimately stitched together to produce a fully justified summative account, which is submitted for marking.

Universal design principles readily apply:-

• takes account of the different ways that students learn and are able to express their learning in various ways;
• fosters continuous development and application over time;
• allows for diversity  -  enables students to meet relevant learning outcomes in a format of their own choosing, according to their own perceived areas of strength;
• always owned by the student, who selects, critiques and justifies the work, making it an authentic and (inclusive) approach to assessment;
• allows for creativity and gradual development - final ‘stitching’ patch encourages students to integrate their understanding of the whole module or integrated across programme of study;
• highly amenable to digital production, which enables sharing, discussion, peer review and developmental feedback processes to be threaded throughout;
• flexible and evolving process which is responsive to change;
• provides vehicle in which to extend personal, professional and theoretical boundaries – process can valuably be used to disturb assumptions about knowledge and how it can be applied to a real-life context/issue;
• draws on personal knowledge, therefore harder to farm out to essay mills;
• feedback, reflection and development of evaluative judgment/metacognition are integral to the design.
• Cannot simply be ‘dropped in’ as a replacement assignment as it needs to be fully integrated with pedagogical approaches;
• students may need significant briefing and guidance on how to achieve what may be to them an unfamiliar task;
• students may resist the process, as it is unfamiliar and less teacher-directed and led than other more familiar formats they are used to;
• takes substantial and careful preparation in advance on your part to ensure that students form a sense of the pattern, pace and scale which underpins the whole process.

Reflection; development of evaluative judgment; metacognition; creative thinking, criticality.

Considerations (workload, timings, inclusiveness, etc.)

• Initial briefing, student preparation and preparatory workshops on reflective writing, peer review processes, feedback literacy and appropriate skills development are essential – to build student confidence and appreciation of the process;
• carefully design the patches to link to the intended learning outcomes and articulate the skills you anticipate students will develop (e.g. synthesis, creative thinking, criticality). brief students clearly about this;
• think carefully about the timing of the patches and think through the relevant logistics - e.g. is there an overarching theme to the ‘stitching’? do you anticipate students having free choice in all or just some selection of patches and content? it can be a good idea to decide core and optional elements in advance and to make these clear to students;
• start small if you are unfamiliar with the approach;
• check out whether suitable technological infrastructures and systems are in place and troubleshoot them with regard to your designs;
• establish clear processes for sharing and reviewing each patch so feedback feeds forward to the next patch. Tailor patch themes to authentic contexts e.g. consider professional practice from client’s viewpoint, create an information leaflet, critique an article from a professional journal, review current news items, analyse data;
• indicate some sample genres so students get the idea e.g. series of Q and A, a letter of application, a press release;
• discuss exemplars and run FAQs;
• guide the overall synthesis clearly and engage students meaningfully with assessment criteria and standards.

A variety of digital formats could be used such as:

• UCL blogging service ( easy to use and set up)
• Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium
• Penzu has a range of e-journals if you prefer that over a diary style notebook
• MS Office Sway allows curation of media, reports, newsletters, web pages, and presentations in an interactive, web-based canvas. All staff and students have free access to this.
• Extract from Chapter 4 of A connected Learning Curriculum for Higher Education (Dilly Fung) [PDF]

Reflection; critical analysis; inclusive; subjective.

Both formative and summative.

Students are required to write critically about what they have learned, drawing upon their experiences and/or practice, and relating it to their reading.

Reflective writing involves producing an analytical piece of work in which the candidate describes an event or idea, reflects deeply using a range of differing perspectives, and attempts to analyse this. It often incorporates references to previous models or theories on the subject.

• Reflective writing can be a powerful means of enabling students to demonstrate complex learning outcomes including critical thinking;
• regular journaling can help students develop good working habits and routines;
• students can deepen their learning by reflection, and can demonstrate analysis, creativity and originality;
• when reflective journaling works well, students continually develop their learning through reflection;
• students can be encouraged to incorporate reflection on any formative feedback;
• as this is highly personal, students are unable to use essay-writing services and plagiarism is reduced;
• regular engagement from staff allows them to gain a good idea of the student’s progress and where additional support is required;
• encourages autonomous learning and increased learner autonomy.

Such analytic abilities can enhance employability and develop evaluative judgement. It might also be used to support employment applications and references.

• Students may not fully understand what is required of them in reflective writing. The tutor may need to test assumptions and spend considerable time setting expectations;
• students may be put off by the idea of keeping a “diary” for assessment;
• many students, at the start at least, write descriptively, extensively and uncritically, and may need extensive guidance on how to write more systematically;
• unless constraints are provided, the length of their writing may make marking unmanageable;
• digital media can replace the handwritten form although some students may prefer handwriting to think, and then rewrite into an electronic form extending the time needed for the assessment;  
• some students may feel they need to write what they think you want to read;
• potential difficulties in verifying content and timing of when reflective notes were actually written (all in one go or throughout the expected time span);
• objective marking is difficult due to the personal, narrative tool. Specific criteria needs to be established and communicated to all.
• Development of reflective, and critical thinking, and to document the student’s learning journey through a topic, module or programme. It can also assess a different writing ability and serve as evidence for other assessed work (e.g. artefacts, presentations);
• can be used in any learning setting – no definitive design.
• can work across longer or shorter time spans. The key is to get the student to think about what they have learned from the experience they are describing;
• links should be made to problem-solving and practical exercises.

Time spent in exploring what critical analysis and reflection mean in academia is well spent. Carefully guided discussion of illustrative exemplars are useful. It can be really helpful to suggest tight indicative word limits on several sections to produce a critical incident account as a starting point to reflective writing e.g.:

• choose and outline an incident that you have experienced in your last placement (200 words)
• describe the context in which you were working (200 words)
• what action did you take? (200 words)
• why did you choose that particular course of action? (200 words)
• how did your choice of actions relate to your university classes and reading in the area? (200 words including at least 3 references)
• how would you do things differently next time? (200 words)
• what did you learn from this experience? (200 words)
• how were you changed (if at all) in your orientation and approach by this, or were your previous convictions borne out? (200 words).
• is this a standalone assessment or being used in conjunction with another assessment type?
• are you setting a prescribed format or leaving it freeform for the student to personalise?
• how often will you check the students are completing this through the timespan?
• There is a UCL blogging service that is easy to use and set up.
• Penzu has a range of e-journals if you prefer that over a diary style notebook.
• Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium could be used.
• Engaging students in active reflection as part of the academic feedback cycle  [case study]

Padlet for assessment toolkit [Imperial]

Collaboration; reflection; groupwork; teamwork.

It can be used for both forms of assessment. It is particularly useful for students to reflect on roles and performance within a team environment.

Students are put into groups and each group is allocated a case study or topic on a weekly basis. Groups work to consider any data, plan their goals and consider recommendations. Learning is scaffolded by mini lectures/exemplars. Students can present a product for formative feedback towards the end of the course/time plan.

The summative assignment might take the form of a practical element or task. The students learn about the cases/topics together through own and guided research. Encourage students to engage in deep critical thinking of the case or topic over consecutive weeks. It works well for authentic case or topic linked to the students’ circumstances/programme.

• Students are used to this form of assessment in traditional classroom teaching but can be equally used well in an online setting using bespoke tools;
• encourages students to actively engage in their learning and form a learning community;
• develops soft skills or communication and teamwork, with added digital skills for collaboration;
• structure provided allows students to focus on “doing” rather than navigating a more vague task;
• exposes students to peer feedback, formative staff feedback and reflection;
• peer group work aids motivation to engage online;
• engage students in critical thinking with exemplars.
• Needs student buy-in and motivation to engage with task and peers;
• time consuming for tutor set up;
• some students have difficulty in assimilating multiple feedback with different or opposing viewpoints;
• many students prefer a single correct “perfect” answer/example;
• can be difficult to determine individual contribution.

Critical thinking and integration across modules or programme, and soft skills.

• Is the assignment well planned?
• Are the internded learning outcome clear?
• Are there external factors which could influence success? (e.g. Connectivity, time zone, familiarity with software)?

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience  and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

Collaborative assignments require online platform (BB Collaborate/MS teams/zoom). Think about access and bandwidth issues (inc. international students);

provide or encourage student groups to define code of conduct or time plan for their group interactions around time zone and other individual constraints;

in face-to-face settings, the final product might be a live presentation. in remote sessions this might be redesigned so that students prepare a pre-recorded presentation for review and feedback from peers and staff. The tutor should provide one or two exemplar presentations – demonstrating typical errors and invite students to grade/comment on the exemplars. The tutor can provide a recorded rating/comment on the exemplars;

final product/presentations are uploaded to a secure folder (Moodle/Onedrive). During the scheduled presentation time students are expected to view and provide feedback on peer presentations using a Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES) form based on marking rubric (e.g. University of Sydney Teaching Tips: Provide easy, efficient, personalised feedback to your students ). Staff/tutors also complete same form with formative feedback. SRES should be simple and accessible;

students review and reflect on their feedback during formal lecture time, mediated online. students can then modify presentations ahead of final presentation (we suggest including an additional slide on their own reflections from the learning process).

Collaborative assignments via Zoom: it was a new experience but a good one [University of Sydney case study]

Digital art project makes most of free web technology [UCL case study]

Supporting online lab-based group work with OneNote [Imperial]

wiki; collaboration; digital

A wiki is a website developed collaboratively by a community of users (students) – allowing any user to add or edit content.

A wiki can be used where a topic benefits from the experience of many different students or where students are likely to need to revisit the topic in the future (e.g. ongoing assessment/feedback as understanding changes or develops).

• Students can bounce ideas off each other, using a collaborative approach to increase the understanding and insight of all;
• students develop teamwork skills and knowledge of software that they can refer to in subsequent job interviews;
• the form reflects the way many industries now share information;
• a digital footprint is kept that can help staff evaluate how and when students are accessing information;
• students are unable to use the essay-writing services to do this type of work for them, and thus it is harder to plagiarize;
• a history of individual’s contributions is captured by the system.
• Students engage with wikis differently, some posting frequently and others posting little at all, making it difficult to mark consistently;
• time must be taken for both the tutor and the students to familiarize themselves with the platform on which the wiki is hosted
• students might be unfamiliar with this form of assessment and so more time will be needed to set out the expectations.

What can it assess?

Wikis lead to improved technical competence and allow students to demonstrate where they have worked collaboratively to further a goal.

• What is the purpose of the wiki?
• Will the blog be public or viewable only by students/assessors?
• How long will the student be expected to use the wiki?
• How often will the students be expected to update the wiki?
• How will you ensure each wiki has academic validity?
• What platform will you host the wiki on?
• Is specialist training needed for you, students and assessors?
• UCL has a range of wikis providing useful information on subjects, teaching and learning. These can be flagged as exemplars.
• Digital education can provide support.
• When UCL students edit Wikipedia

Peer assessment; IPAC.

It works with both, and in fact it is beneficial if it is used as combination of the two. At the end of a project, the IPAC can be used to give formative feedback to the students as well as summative marks. In long projects, one can also use it as formative first, in the middle of the project, giving a chance to staff to know how the groups are doing, and also helping with the group dynamics moving forward in the project.

The IPAC methodology should be used when students are completing a group work, particularly in cases where the weight of that activity counts significantly towards students’ grades.

It gives tutors the chance to assess the level of contribution of each student to the group work, assessed by their peers. This presents multiple advantages and possible uses as listed in the advantages section.

• Can improve student group dynamics;
• discourages passengers/free riders in the team, encourages students to participate in the group work;
• addresses staff and students’ concerns regarding the fairness of individual marks;
• addresses the accrediting bodies' concerns regarding the fairness of individual marks;
• provides opportunities for students to practice (learn/become trained) on how to provide constructive and professional feedback to their peers – this is a type of external facing assessment;
• shows students how their contributions have been perceived by their peers – a very important element in improving teamwork;
• provides insightful information to staff on how the groups are working and allows the possibility to address any issues early on;
• it compensates /substitutes/complements other more time-consuming methods of observation of individual contribution to group work, e.g. tutor observations in class. Therefore, the IPAC becomes key during group work activities run online;
• it reduces the number of overall complains from students regarding group dynamics, while providing a formal mechanism to give students feedback;
• can be used to track individual student development;
• it is fast to implement using the IPAC LTI and software, available at UCL;
• customizable by staff.
• The IPAC assessment methodology should be explained to students at the start of the group work activity (including the aim and benefits), particularly if the students have not used it previously;
• students do not need long to complete peer feedback (5-30 minutes) but it can be perceived as an additional deadline unless made optional (not recommended).

The IPAC methodology can assess a variety of things. It is completely customizable by the staff. Some types of questions and example attributes are:

• general engagement with the project, e.g. overall contribution to the project, effort, quality of the work, etc.;
• professional skills, e.g. ability to work in teams, leadership, communication, etc.;
• contribution to a particular part of the project, e.g. contribution to ideas, contribution to the writing of final report;
• compliance with team contract defined by members of the group at the start of the project.

Students only need 5-30 minutes to complete, depending on how extensive the comments that they write to their peers are.

the IPAC methodology used software that is very fast to set-up and implement even in very large classes; it is available at UCL and tutors can set it up in 5-60 minutes depending on how much one wants to customize. It processes all the data in five minutes and provides feedback and marks to students in five minutes.

If you want to use this methodology, you need to inform students at the start of the group project. That is not just common good practice, it also plays an important part of getting the most benefits out of the assessment methodology, particularly in terms of students’ engagement.

The methodology allows staff to customise parts. A guide on this is available below.

• IPAC project wiki
• Introduction to the methodology and guidelines on how to use it: Garcia-Souto MdP et al (2019). Individual peer assessment of contribution to group work (IPAC): Key points and recommendations. Full text: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10092391/
• Garcia-Souto, MdP (2019). Is it safe to use peer assessment of individual contribution level when assessing group work?
• IPAC software and LTI – Contact Dr Pilar Garcia Souto to get a copy and also to get trained:  [email protected]

Viva; viva voce; interviews; presentations.

Orally, students individually, or in groups, are required in real time to answer questions from one or more examiner on prepared topics. Sometimes questions are preceded by a short presentation from the examinee.

When on-site vivas are not possible, virtual formats can be used, as has been the case for international PhD examinations for some years.

• Allows probing questions to check for understanding;
• encourages the students to prepare thoroughly on the topic or area of study;
• allows assessment of higher-level thinking without the barrier of written communication;
• can encourage and develop confidence in oral skills if used formatively and consistently;
• widely used for high-stakes assessment, such as at doctoral and master’s students and readily usable virtually by other levels;
• regarded as authentic, as many careers and professions may depend on face-to-face skills at answering questions and giving persuasive explanations;
• the face-to-face/ live virtual dimension allows assessors to gauge students’ speed and confidence at answering questions in ‘real time’, even virtually, in contrast to most other assessment methods;
• probing questions can be used, e.g. ‘how else…?’, ‘why else’ and so on, to explore students’ depth of knowledge (cognitive challenge);
• reduces plagiarism concerns;
• Virtual vivas can enable recordings to be made which are useful not only for quality assurance purposes but also, with permission, as resources for future students.
• With large cohorts, managing virtual vivas can be time consuming;
• some candidates can be adversely affected by nerves;
• students may be unfamiliar with the assessment method and so may need additional guidance and support, with opportunities to practice;
• technical difficulties with broadband connections, different time zones and live links are unpredictable and can be hugely disruptive;
• students with greater social capital and advantage are likely to do better than other students;
• students with voice impairments may not do themselves justice, and hesitation (e.g. from stammering) may be misinterpreted as lack of knowledge;
• difficult to guarantee fairness between candidates, especially when variations in levels of probing occur;
• where students are viva-ed in groups, there may be issues around apportioning the contributions fairly;
• assessment may be affected by a range of factors (e.g. unconscious bias, uncongenial environment…).

Oral examinations can be used to assess student’s(s’) engagement with a topic, to explore their thinking and assist the development of new ideas or avenues of research. The student(s) might propose an argument or be given a specific topic/area, while the examiner(s) can discuss, debate or ask further questions.

• There is a strong case for the increased use of oral assessment as part of a balanced range of assessment methods in present-day contexts but this has to balanced with the time needed to set up and conduct;
• as with all forms of novel assessment on any programme, students will need guidance on how best to undertake a viva as well as practice opportunities with feedback (maybe including peer feedback) to ensure confidence;
• when, where and how will the examination be conducted?
• how will you measure quality of response, and maintain consistency across students and examiners?
• how will any recording be used and kept securely?
• how many examiners will be used for each student, and have you addressed any EDI concerns in the examiner/student ratios?
• Suggest the use of open questions and positive body language (Incl. eye contact and active listening).

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see  how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• Platforms might include MS Teams or BB Collaborate;
• think about how you can enhance your positive body language and rapport with the student via online medium?
• as with any other form of live assessment, recordings or other forms of documentation of the events will be needed for quality assurance/external examining purposes;
• consider scaffolding student learning via, say, a series of authentic assessment tasks which culminate in interactive oral assessments;

NB. There is provision in the regulations for an investigatory viva where contract cheating is suspected: Where there is suspicion of Contract Cheating, the Chair of the Departmental Panel may, with the approval of the Faculty Tutor, initiate an investigatory viva to establish authorship. Undertaking random vivas is not permitted.

• Oral assessment Toolkit [UCL]

Presentation; performance.

May be used effectively for both.

These may be individual or group presentations/performances, usually to a live audience (other students, the public) and not just the assessor. Assessment criteria should be known in advance, and may include the ability to articulate clearly, coherently and competently the answers to reasonable questions arising from the presentation/performance.

• Allows candidates to demonstrate communication skills (e.g. oral, visual, physical) alongside subject mastery;
• authentic: presentational (oral, visual, physical) skills are important in future employment;
• peer-assessment can make presentations/performances a better learning experience for all;
• can include ability to respond to spontaneous questions from the assessor and/or the audience.
• Assessing presentations can be hugely time-consuming;
• may be hard to strike a balance between mastery of content, and skills of presentation;
• ‘raising the bar’: expected standards can become higher over a series of presentations/performances as assessors expect more and more;
• in presentations, ‘impression’ marks can be associated with the quality of presentation slides or resource materials used in the presentations;
• where multiple assessors are involved, inter-assessor reliability can be problematic.
• communication skills for a variety of audiences
• ability to respond to questions.
• It is important to set and stick to time limits;
• clarity on assessment criteria is imperative so students recognise weightings of diverse assessed elements (e.g. information content, presentation techniques, ability to answer questions etc.);
• as above, briefing/training and rehearsal are important to give each student a fair chance to succeed since some will have done these before and others won’t.

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience: https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/26730 and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• It may be more sensible to rely on recorded and submitted rather than live presentations to allow for technical issues;
• recorded presentations can create large file sizes which are difficult to manage;
• recordings and other records will need to be made and kept for QA/ external examiners for any live presentations;
• it may be challenging to replicate the ‘live audience’ virtually if a synchronous approach is desired.
• Project presentations to webinars [Imperial case study]

Video; audio; digital skills; podcast.

Can be used effectively for both.

The production of video or audio content provides an alternative to the written form and can promote a more inclusive approach to assessment. Students are required to submit data files containing their video/ audio recordings, and podcasts to provide evidence of achievement of specific learning outcomes. They gather information on a subject and present it in audio or visual form within a specific time duration. The report needs a structured narrative, similar to an essay, but with evidence, analysis and conclusion taking place in an audio/video format.

• Students can see the value of producing outputs in what they are likely to use as a very 21st Century medium. May link to employment opportunities and skills set;
• these forms are likely to be relatively difficult to plagiarise or farm out to essay mills;
• allows more flexibility and choice than traditional pen-and-paper approaches (inclusivity);
• allows demonstration of creative approaches to exploring ideas/problem;
• scripting and voicing requires both writing and speaking skills – reading a script out loud can help develop more fluent writing styles;
• encourages students to focus their argument and avoid waffling within a time constraint;
• suitable as either a group or individual assignment.
• Students may not at first realise how much work is needed to prepare for, plan and deliver a seemingly informal output like a broadcast and may consequently leave it up to the last minute;
• students and staff, may need training to use appropriate software;
• conversely, they may concentrate so much on the medium that they neglect the message;
• there can be technical issues about recording and data files might be very large to submit electronically;
• external review may comment on this assessment lacking academic rigour;
• shy/introverted students may find this assessment method particularly challenging;
• students may focus more on production techniques than on the content;
• risk of unconscious bias in assessment if the student has poor speaking skills or speaking impairments;
• extra care is needed to ensure this assessment is academically rigorous and that sources are properly cited;
• There can be substantial problems concerning ‘digital equity’ in that some students will have significantly better access to good quality kit than others.

What it can assess

How cogently a student can synthesise and communicate complex ideas relating to a specific topic.

Critical thought needs to be demonstrated beyond standard written format.

Particularly useful for assessing how students can portray complex ideas in an accessible way.

• Is it clear what is being assessed (content rather than production techniques)?
• Will students have technical support in compiling the video/audio?
• How long will the student(s) have to prepare, and what is their expected recording duration?
• Who will assess? Just academic staff or a combination with external/peer assessment and feedback.
• How will marking be maintained and consistent across different examiners and markers?
• How will you address any EDI concerns?
• We suggest providing exemplars.

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules. Weights assigned to assessment components should indicate importance and address reliability and validity implications.  View the animation to see how to balance assessments to create a holistic student experience  and produce a simple visualisation of your intended design using the template.

• As with other innovative assessment media, good briefing, training, discussion and rehearsal are imperative;
• It is important that assessment criteria are based on students’ capability, expertise and knowledge rather than technical specifications when they are working from home without access to loan equipment;
• Be careful to issue indicative expectations of workload and remember to include time for learning how to use tools, for example video or audio editing software. A lack of equipment might prevent some students from participating fully;
• Students may use a wide variety of sophisticated software or use more simple recording options in PowerPoint or Webcast. YouTube might be appropriate if issues of open content, IP and data security are taken into ccount. LinkedIn learning can help students with technical issues;
• Creative Commons – catalogue of licence-free music and audio that can be used in presentations. Facility to download audio files from the internet;
• OpenShot – free video editing software, compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows;
• Windows (Movie Maker) or Mac (iMovie) – free inbuilt software for Windows / Mac devices, basic and easy-to-use video editors;
• For podcast Audacity is a free open-source recording software, compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows. User friendly, with facilities to export and compress files easily;
• You might also consider giving audio or video record feedback to your students, rather than written accounts. Student react to the different format and engage in different ways – often at higher levels.
• Assessing internship experiences using video blogs (vlogs)  [UCL case study]
• Undergraduates use interpretivist research methods to make podcasts about being Jewish at UCL  [UCL case study]

The video documentary assignment is a communication task where groups of two or three students investigate a topic of their choosing. It provides an alternative to written communication assignments which predominate in science courses.

The production of a documentary film can encourage teamwork, develop new skills, reinforce concepts, and generate new knowledge.

The resources can be used by future students.

Keywords | Formative or summative   | Ease of setting up   |   When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Vlog; steaming; broadcast; film; documentary.

Mostly summative but could be used for formative.

Relatively easy. Establishing and assessing an authentic task using a video requires little or no revision of your existing module.

You will need to provide detailed guidance on the terms of engagement, timing and sequence of scaffolding activities, marking criteria, rubrics, and provide examples.

The bulk of the instructional activities occur in the first week. 

A variety of assessed and non- assessed components may be used, for example, non-assessed but mandatory components might include group meeting minutes and a draft storyboard or script.

The primary aim of these elements is to assist students in time management and planning for making their documentary.

Assessed components include:

• an annotated bibliography as background research and justification for selection of sources of evidence – students conduct this as individuals and receive an individual mark;
• a peer assessment of group member contribution to the assignment based on the criteria of participation, reliability and contribution (see ipac assessment and software guidance for managing groupwork);
• the video product – students conduct this as a group and receive a group mark.

A video documentary assignment can be used when you wish to develop students communication, digital and critical analysis sills in your discipline.

You can also use it when you want to students to create direct links with researchers within your faculty.

• Video documentary assignments facilitate student learning of teamwork, information and digital literacy, structure of a logical argument, basic audience analysis, and how to engage an audience as well as oral and visual presentation skills.
• Student engagement with the video documentary assignment is very high. Many students report that it provides an enjoyable bonding experience which helps them to find and make friends.
• Data collected through anonymous student surveys consistently report the highlight of the video assignment as being factors that foster intrinsic motivation, including the opportunity to make friends, novel hands-on and outdoor experiences, establishing links with UCL researchers and independence in topic choice and presentation style.

The challenge that is likely to cause hesitation about implementing a video task is how to supply, manage and support students’ use of the technology involved. An approach you may adopt is to encourage students to use whichever technology they are familiar with, but to emphasise that support may be available for particular tools. UCL students have access to LinkedIn Learning that can support skills development. If students feel uncomfortable with producing a video, give them the opportunity of producing a PowerPoint presentation.

Marking is possibly the second challenge that comes to mind when considering the implementation of a video style assignment. Requiring students to work in groups certainly helps in keeping the marking load manageable (e.g., one assignment per four students). Marking video assignments is an acquired skill as both novice and experienced markers are easily seduced by entertaining stories, ‘wow’ footage and background music. Explicit and specific marking criteria and inclusion of a moderation activity at the start, and part way through the marking process will help to establish and maintain consistency of judgement between markers. 15 min per assignment for marking to allow the video to be viewed in front of the whole class, a Q&A session and for marks to be entered and feedback written is a reasonable amount to time.

• Student learning about teamwork;
• information and digital literacy;
• structure of a logical argument;
• basic audience analysis;
• how to engage an audience;
• oral and visual presentation skills
• Students are expected to explain the concepts that underpin an issue of their choosing and communicate its relevance to an audience in a five to seven-minute film that will be created over a 10-week period.
• Students must be given guidance about the balance of tone that addresses the audience and the depth of disciplinary knowledge required.

Involve students with the assessment criteria (e.g. via co-production exercises or in guided discussion) so they are clear about the standards, meanings and relevant weightings of criteria and can use them to evaluate their own work in progress.

• The assessment design must be aligned with the learning goals so that the purpose of the documentary as a whole is clear to students. Without this, students may lose sight of the end goal. Students are less likely to put effort into the formative assessment if they cannot see how this will help them with the summative.
• Make sure to assign students to teams so they complement each other’s’ technical, presentation and academic skills. Students should be encouraged to share their final video with friends and family - they have reported very positive outcomes.
• To provide incentives for students interested in filmmaking and/or communication, the top 5 videos can be uploaded to the UCL Media server or YouTube channel, where this exists.
• Ensure your students understand that documentaries are assessed using standard marking criteria and video quality and technical skills are not part of the assessment. Provide students information about copyright issues, for example organise an information session with the UCL Copyright officer.
• Spend one or two sessions providing students with basic technical skills including video editing, knowledge about various video editing software and an ability to create a plan of action for making the video. You may ask students to take online courses for video filming, production, animation and script writing for informational videos using Linkedin Learning .
• If your students include interviews with researchers or others, ensure you obtain written consent from both the student and the researcher/external before you make the video publicly available. Students should send the researcher/external they interviewed a link with the final version of the video and check if the researchers/external are happy with content accuracy.

Novel assessment on anatomy module inspires reconfiguration of assessment on entire programme  

How video assignments can boost student engagement

• Making documentary videos: basic tutorial
• Armstead Archaelogy blog: Girl's on Film

Students as science communicators and film makers

William A. Callahan: Visual International Politics Student Movies  [LSE case study]

Keywords | Formative or summative   | Ease of setting up   |   When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Artefacts; creative; creative industry; portfolio; digital portfolio.

Both summative and formative assessment.

It depends on the complexity of the portfolio and the platform you may choose to support it. It requires considerable preparation and may impact on other assessments within a single module or with others where assessment volume may be increased. If introducing for the first time, portfolios require thought and guidance.

Traditional written exams are rarely used in many subjects aligned to the creative industries. The reduction of lack of face to face raises challenges for on-site assessments, for example in subjects requiring sculptures, paintings, architectural designs and engineering models. In addition to assessing artefacts, the process by which they have been achieved, and work in progress, is central to both summative and formative assessment.

A portfolio of artefacts may be taken into the digital environment photographs, video, audio descriptions or other digital media. A digital portfolio allows demonstration of how the student generated or connected the items they compiled on a given subject. Portfolios can include written reflective texts.

In normal times, assessment in situ would be the norm, but currently many are using photographic or video evidence of output, so these are likely to need a reflective commentary as well as other forms of documentation of progress to provide rigor and enhance assessor’s confidence.

Students can complete their work in stages and build up work slowly. This practice will help students to develop the skills needed for longer pieces of work, like a dissertation or large project. Tutors can observe how students’ ideas have developed over time, potentially reducing opportunities for academic misconduct;

it encourages students to tackle the module/programme and the issues in smaller inter-related parts, allowing them time to think and reflect on their ideas;

assessment of artefacts such as these is high on validity and authenticity;

progress can be monitored through staged feedback and review or a summative portfolio;

diversity or a range in material can be presented and included;

students are encouraged to develop planning and organisation skills for both development of the artefact and supporting portfolio/reflective commentary;

reflective commentaries on work in progress can help demonstrate the thinking that underpins the creative production;

documented evidence provides indicators of the standards of evidence of achievement for future students to work towards;

artefacts are useful as evidence of achievement to show prospective employers;

students are unable to use essay-writing services, difficult to plagiarise (however there is higher potential when on a digital portfolio is presented. hence suggested incorporation of reflective commentary or journal to support authenticity).

It may be hard to assure inter-assessor reliability unless criteria are really effectively negotiated and shared among the assessment team;

Engaging students and maintaining motivation and commitment;

marking can be time consuming;

possibility of plagiarism in digital realm if only marking final product/artefact;

can conceal a high volume of assessment. For example, a portfolio may contain many components;

marking a work in progress requires a different set or number of marking criteria to marking a completed final output.

A portfolio of artefacts can be used to show the development of ideas and skills over a period of time.

It may be used to demonstrate students’ capabilities as well as the quality of an artefact. It can be a collection of work on several topics (demonstrating integration) or a single topic.

Discuss with colleagues what they imagine the student workload might be within each context that it is used.   A portfolio can often conceal a high volume of assessment as ‘the portfolio’ may be labelled as a single assessment but contain many components. Involve students with the assessment criteria (e.g. via co-production exercises or in guided discussion) so they are clear about the standards, meanings and relevant weightings of criteria and can use them to evaluate their own work in progress.

Please ensure that your module formative and summative assessment strategy takes account of the overall assessment load for the student studying multiple modules, especially where portfolio assessment is used on other modules.

• In seeking evidence of achievement, it is quite useful to ask for notebooks and evidence of work in process when this is produced remotely to ensure that the person submitting was the person who created it. This shift from just ‘making’ to ‘making and explaining’ is also invaluable in encouraging reflective approaches to creative production and revision which can demonstrate core learning outcomes;
• note guidance on ‘reflective journal’ and portfolio assessment;
• explore UCL’s My Portfolio software.
• Creating digital portfolios [UCL]
• See a range of examples in practice-based contexts , especially the video Moving Online, Creative Art and Design, Staffordshire Uni, which explicitly discusses some advantages of moving to digital submission.

A blog (abbreviated from "web log") is a website or webpage that is updated by the student throughout a course or assessment period; it details, for example, a learning journey. It can be authored by one or more students.

Keywords | Formative or summative   | Ease of setting up   |   When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations | Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Blog; digital skills; multimedia; reflection.

High. Establishing and assessing an authentic task using a blog may require you to significantly revise your existing module or even rebuild from scratch.

Students will need to register for a blog. You will need write guidance on the terms of engagement – how to register, marking criteria, rubrics, word limits, how often students should comment and post, and provide examples.

Depending on whether it is individual or group assessment, you may need to put in considerable time early on monitoring and motivating. Your students will look to you to set the pace and style of engagement

A blog should be used when you wish the student to develop one idea or concept over an extended period of time. It should be used to help monitor how students have engaged with the material presented and how their views changed as they were presented with new material and ideas.

These can be used for formative or summative assessment. As part of the assignment, they might be asked to comment constructively on other student’s blogs. They can be a useful vehicle to help reflective learning.

• Students can complete their blog in stages and develop it slowly. This practice will help students to develop the skills needed for longer pieces of work, like a dissertation or large project. Tutors can observe how students’ ideas have developed over time, potentially reducing opportunities for academic misconduct;
• blogs can provide an invaluable online record of student work, offering opportunities to be reflective, improving writing and analytic skills, and enhancing student learning and promoting academic integrity;
• blogs can have a professional focus to heighten authenticity;
• it encourages students to work in small steps, allowing them time to think and reflect on their ideas;
• students are unable to use the essay writing services to do this type of work for them;
• student can embed other resources such as hyperlinks, images, videos and podcasts and encourage peer’s/readers' comments;
• blogs can be used to demonstrate the student’s writing and digital skills in future employment application;
• many students are already blogging and so the context is reasonably familiar for them;
• tutors can monitor students’ progress before final submission and ensure the assignment is being completed appropriately, i.e. that it is not left to the last minute;
• since they are relatively short in length, they are likely to be manageable to mark.
• Students may be unfamiliar with this form of assessment and so need clear expectations establishe;
• students may need guidance on registering, using references and setting the right tone;
• some colleagues/quality assurers, PSRBs etc. may need convincing that blogs are serious academic tasks;

Dynamic and concise writing, application of theoretical connections with the ‘real world’,  transferable (non-academic) skills and digital skills.

Students can engage in self and peer reflection by constructing knowledge collaboratively. Peer assessment can enhance students' discrimination skills and learning from each other.

Many of our students will go on to use blogs and social media as part of their future work, particularly if they are going to engage in further research work. This assessment will give them a concrete example of where they have used these skills when asked about them at interview so this type of assessment will give them a concrete examples of where they have used these skills when asked about them at interview.

The assessment design must be aligned with the learning goals so that the purpose of the blog as a whole, and of individual blog posts is clear to students. Without this, students may lose sight of the end goal of the blog and let their contributions slide. Students are less likely to put effort into formative assessment if they cannot see how this will help them with the summative. Useful questions to answer….

• What skills are you expecting students to have or develop – what support is there for this (Linkedin Learning, writing style/tone, etc)?
• How will students know when, what and how much to post?
• How will you ensure the blogs have academic validity?
• What criteria will you use?
• How will you mark it (feedback sheets or direct annotation on the blog)? What criteria will you use?
• Does the blog need to be locked down: are you assessing their ability to blog (ongoing) or a specific point in time, especially if it is a summative assessment?
• Will the blog be public or viewable only by you and the student?
• How long will students be expected to use the blog?
• Is any specialist training needed in order for the students to be able to use the platform?

The UCL blogging service, Reflect , is straightforward to set up.

Following set -up, you will need to respond to student queries and remind them of the rubrics, marking criteria and module learning outcomes.

As this media form may be novel for students, you may need to offer individual advice on how to regulate writing or posts to maximise responses.

Plan to assess early when students are posting and commenting frequently. Students who receive feedback early on will continue to post and comment throughout the module

Other useful questions to ask are:

•            Will the blog be public or viewable only by you and the student?

•            How long will students be expected to use the blog- how long should blog be live after the assessment deadline?

•            Is any specialist training or resources that students can access to develop the digital skills required?

• Medical Science students use UCL Reflect to create scientific blogs for assessment  
• Blogging as a method of assessment [LSE]
• Assessing blogs [University of New South Wales]

Keywords | Formative or summative   | Ease of setting up   |   When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations  |  Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Publication; journals; newsletter; magazine.

It can be used for both.

Relatively easy. Guidance in the form of ‘Guides for Authors’ is needed to shape assessment criteria and rubrics.

Students are asked to write as if for a journal, newsletter or magazine submissions.

• This can be a very authentic assessment method, of which students can recognise the value;
• They can helpfully prescribe wordage, referencing, style etc.;
• By emulating the writing of published resources, students may develop a better appreciation of how journal articles are organised and structured, which might make them more usable in their information searches.
• Full length journal articles are lengthy to assess;
• students may see the task as rather daunting and the requirements may be unfamiliar.

What can it assess

• Knowledge, critical analysis, writing and academic skills, employability/higher level study prepapartion.

Considerations (workload, timings, inclusiveness, etc

• Students will need careful briefing of requirements so they can fully appreciate the task;
• A side benefit is that if they are really good, the student can consider submitting for actual publication: quite a few do, and some succeed. Some journals for undergraduate research or student engagement also provide useful opportunities;

There are online journal platforms (such as PKP) that allow for rapid setting up for online submission of articles or working papers. These may be used for outwards facing student publication or professional communication.

• Assessing students' multimedia work [UCL Toolkit]
• Open Journal Systems

Keywords | Formative or summative   | Ease of setting up   |   When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations  |  Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Guides; leaflets; documents.

Ease of setting up

Relatively easy. Guidance is needed to shape assessment criteria and rubrics.

As an alternative to producing a published paper, students can be asked to produce a guide, infographic, graphic novel, video, explainer, diagrams with exploded text, workshop guide, instruction manual or similar, which educates a specified audience about a complex topic.

These can be undertaken individually as ‘chapters,’ which are collated into a folio/booklet to encourage collaboration.

• Students can often see the point of preparing outputs which have the potential for actually being used by the target group, as opposed to jumping through assessment hoops simply to please a marker;
• where these are applied (e.g. a guide for professionals, or members of public etc.) they can be highly motivating forms of assessment;
• drafts and finished versions are amenable to submit for review and constructive feedback from a range of audiences, including the intended audience;
• readily adaptable to promote and foster collaborative, asynchronous approaches to (online) working within peer groups, thus building learning resources and communities (especially important when remote working likely).

Students can get carried away with the novelty of the format, so guidance is important.

Professional knowledge and communication.

It might be a good idea to require students to submit assignment checklists which help guide them to consider all the key features you are looking for. If these are generated in advance by the teaching team in dialogue this will help ensure staff have shared expectations and standards.

Be careful to issue indicative expectations of workload and remember to include time for learning how to use tools, for example video or audio editing software. A lack of equipment might prevent some students from participating fully.

Evaluation; assessment for learning; sustainable assessment; peer assessment; self-regulated learning.

Ease to set up

Relatively easy.

Staff can set evaluative tasks which require students to carefully choose and evaluate, say three, websites or similar on a given topic.

• Careful and challenging question-setting for tightly focused assessment tasks (see “considerations”) can focus students on achieving high-order learning outcomes while focusing on choosing personalised source materials to evaluate/review;
• students are likely to perceive that the task requires original thought and their own voice, so boosting a sense of academic integrity and authenticity, as well as allowing you to spot similarities;
• avoids students simply cutting and pasting from the wealth of material they can find, while allowing students the flexibility to source a variety of material (rather than rely on a few sources).
• Students who have previously become familiar with tried and tested surface approaches to gathering academic material for their reports or essays may need support/briefing and practice in tackling the task effectively;
• If the task involves sustained access to websites or data bases, digital equity may be an issue.
• Evaluative judgement is the capability to make decisions about the quality of work   of oneself and others;
• Evaluative judgement is the capability to make decisions about the quality of work   of oneself and others
• Evaluative judgement to help critical analysis. Considerations (workload, timings, inclusiveness, etc.

Ensure clear instructional guidance. For example: 

Avoid: Explain the effects of obesity on public health.   Instead use: Create a set of five criteria and standards for judging the quality of websites about obesity, and apply your criteria/standards to three websites, one of which is the best and one of which is the worst  (adapted from ‘Designing out plagiarism: A brief guide for busy academics’, University of Surrey).

Avoid: Compare and contrast economic theories X and Y.   Instead use: Locate three websites or printed texts that deal with X economic theory, then contrast the views expressed in these sources with the economic situation in country Y, and make recommendations for this country’s economic future (adapted from Carroll, J., & Appleton, J., 2001, ‘Plagiarism: A good practice guide’)”.

Design clear assessment task and brief. There are no particular challenges for going digital.

Tai, Joanna & Ajjawi, Rola & Boud, David & Dawson, Phillip & Panadero, Ernesto. (2018). Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work. Higher Education. 6. 467-481. 10.1007/s10734-017-0220-3.

Keywords | Formative or summative   | When to use | Advantages | Disadvantages | What it can assess | Considerations  |  Design | Going digital: challenges and considerations  | Key resources

Annotated bibliography; formative assessment.

Generally used for formative assessment.

Students are required to list and discuss a number of references on a particular topic, explaining how they located them, why they chose these rather than other references, what they learned from them and how they can apply the learning to their particular contexts.

They are often used early in a programme when students are learning how to manage information prior to essay writing.

May take the form of a short summary paragraph per paper, or some form of a summary table, bullet points or audio files.

• This is a useful way to engage students with the relevant literature, rather than just collecting information on it, thereby building information literacy;
• candidates can demonstrate their depth of study of the sources and the breadth of the source material they have reviewed;
• encourages reading full article rather than a surface scan. Can be used to engage with methodology and their impact on conclusions;
• well established assessment method with wider range of support material online;
• plagiarism is limited. Although students may choose the same sources, it would be easy to spot identical annotations.
• Students do not write extended critical text, this is short prose;
• students might be unfamiliar with this form of assessment – needs clear expectations and alignment;
• students may find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer range of resources available and may have poor information retrieval skills at the outset;
• some students from cultures where set texts are used, or where teachers mandate the reference sources they are to use, may find the open-endedness of the task scary.

Where you want a student to explore articles or text in depth. Introduction to literature or deeper critical engagement with literature.

Support development of critical reasoning skills, evaluative skills.

Serves as preparation for writing longer essays and dissertations.

• Will you provide the refences or expect the students to seek their own?
• Will you give a specific topic or a wide area of study?
• Is the assessment standalone, or feeing into future work?
• Specify expect number of references and/or word count (e.g. 10-20 references).

If early in studies, student might need support in accessing material, including search engines and quality control of source material.

A collection of annotated bibliographies can be turned into a resource-bank and issued to future students as a starting place for them to develop their own bibliographies.

• Writing an annotated bibliography [University of Toronto]

Glossary of assessment related terms

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Y | Z

This is a reference list where the student has added extra information on each reference given. Usually, this extra information will summarise and critically explore the reference it concerns. Though the norm is for the extra information to take the form of a short paragraph, it may take many different forms depending on the specific requirements laid out in the assessment criteria. For example, the assessment criteria may state that the information should be presented in bullet points, as audio files, etc.    

This should detail exactly what students are required to do and must align with the data stored in Portico and published on the Module Catalogue. Moodle should be used to amplify and support that information, perhaps to include sources of advice, etc.  

These are the details that explains what evidence the candidate needs to demonstrate (e.g. knowledge, or a skill, etc.) in order to attain a  particular grade  or level. They are detailed enough to be able to demonstrate how an assessment will be marked. If you are using rubrics or grading forms, make these available as a part of the criteria.  

For assessment purposes, you should focus on assessments that are asynchronous but need to be completed by a  particular deadline .  Synchronous assessments are risky in that they rely on specific access and they should only be attempted with significant support/advice from the ISD.  

A blog is a website or webpage that is updated by the student throughout a course or assessment period; it details, for example, a learning journey. You can use these are part of an on-going assessment as a type of journal – they can be formative and summative – it depends on how you want students to use them to evidence their learning.   

These are assessments which mean students will be evaluated against some specific learning, behaviour, or performance objective. This objective, and/or the level of performance that represents "competency" is clearly established in the curriculum and represents an expected level of expertise or mastery of skills or knowledge.  

  'Constructive alignment' starts with the notion that the learner constructs his or her own learning through relevant learning activities. We therefore need to create a learning environment that supports the learning activities appropriate to achieving the desired learning outcomes of the module and programme. All components (the curriculum and its intended outcomes, the teaching methods used, the learning activities designed and the assessment tasks) - are aligned to each other. The learner finds it difficult to escape without learning appropriately.

A course report is a selection of notes an academic will make during a student’s study, usually over the course of the module. Usually, this report will consider the student’s input in the lectures and/or seminars. It may take several forms, from short written notes to a tick box sheet.  

A dissertation is a large body of work which provides students the opportunity to engage in independent research study. A dissertation is not a long essay, but rather a review of different points of view about the subject. It should also include original research, which may be designed to test hypotheses and to further understanding of the topic.  

An essay is a written text exploring a  particular subject . They are useful in online learning settings as students can upload drafts, build work using patchwork assessments and then submit a final assignment via a VLE or similar.   

it should be noted that managing the access to online examination settings, providing remote invigilation and ensuring that students abide by criteria for resources, e.g. open book. Are all validated and agreed. These situations need careful handling, explanation and might need additional IT security.   

' In-tray’ exams   can take the form of exams where candidates are already provided with factual detail about a scenario (for example, the staffing and facilities of a hospital ward, or a business portfolio) and are given time to familiarise themselves with the information provided.  Managing the use of materials for online testing situations is complex and would need professional support.  

Open-book exams  where candidates are provided with texts or journal articles and sometimes, reference materials of their own choice, to be used in an examination setting. The advantages include reducing the emphasis on memory recall. A disadvantage can occur if different candidates have different resources to use.  Managing the use of materials for online testing situations is complex and would need professional support.  

Open-notes exams   where candidates  are allowed to  bring in with them a limited quantity of prepared material – handwritten or word-processed – to assist them in answering the exam questions.  Managing the use of materials for online testing situations is complex and would need professional support.  

Oral exams  

An oral examination is an assessment conducted through speech. The candidate may propose an argument and then provide evidence to prove or disprove it, while the examiner  is allowed to  discuss, debate and ask further questions.  

Takeaway exams  can be where candidates are given a question paper or task to take out of the exam room and asked to submit their answers  at a later time  in the same day (or beyond). Such exams can have the advantage of simulating real-world situations, where people  are allowed to  use resource materials and talk to other people when solving problems.  Managing the use of materials for online testing situations is complex and would need professional support.  

Timed online exams

AssessmentUCL and Quiz tools in Moodle can be used to schedule online, timed tests or exams. Quizzes and tests can be set up to:  

• be taken during a specific time period (e.g. on a specific day or at any time during a specific week)  
• have a time limit, requiring the student to complete the quiz or test within a specified timeframe (e.g. 60 minutes from the time they begin)  

An exercise or task set by the examiner will help determine the student’s aptitude. Exercises and tasks vary from subject to subject and from examiner to examiner. For example, field work provides an opportunity for assessed on-site work on a project in a context relating to the subject.  

Feedback is information given to the learner about the learner’s performance relative to  learning goals or outcomes. It should aim to (and be capable of) producing improvement in  students’ learning.

Feedback redirects or refocuses either the teacher’s or the learner’s actions  to achieve a goal, by aligning effort and activity with an outcome. It can be about the output of  the activity, the process of the activity, the student’s management of their learning or self-regulation, or them as individuals.

This feedback can be verbal or written, or can be given  through tests or via digital technology. It can come from a teacher or someone taking a  teaching role, or from peers. 

A ctionable feedback (also known as ‘feed-forward) specifically identifies what needs improvement and offers a plan of action to make the necessary improvement possible.  

Formative assessment refers to any form of assessment, such as quizzes, tests, essays, projects, interviews, or presentations, in which the goal is to give students feedback about their work while it is in progress, to help students correct errors or missteps, or to improve the work along the way to the final product. In contrast,  summative evaluation  is to make a judgment about a final product or about the quality of performance at the end of an instructional unit or course.  

Group presentation  

A group presentation where two or more students work collaboratively to present a piece of work. It may be an oral, visual, poster or written presentation.  

Group project report  

A group project report is a log of the entire process of creating a group project. Usually, it is written in conjunction with a group project or presentation.  

Peer review exercises  

A peer review exercise is one in which students review each other’s work and have a critical dialogue concerning it.  

A wiki is a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, in this case students, allowing any user to add and edit content.  

A lab notebook is a primary method of research – for example, the physical paper that chemists use to write down their results in the lab. It is used by researchers as a memory aid, an organizational tool and to document their experiments, hypotheses and initial analysis.  

A learning objective is a specific statement that describes what the student is to learn, understand, or to be able to do as a result of a lesson or a series of lessons.  

A learning outcome represents what the student  actually achieved  as a result of a lesson or a series of lessons. The success of lessons may be influenced by the students' prior knowledge, their effort and attention, teaching methods, resources, and time. Learning outcomes refer to the  results  of instruction, while learning objectives refer to the intended  goals and purposes  of lessons.  

A literature review is a secondary source, as it does not propose any new or original experimental work. It includes findings relevant to a  particular topic , as well as pre-existing theoretical and methodical ideas.  

Multiple-choice questions are a method of assessment where a candidate is tasked with selecting the right answer (or answers) from a list of incorrect answers. It may be taken in timed conditions, as part of a formal examination, or in an informal setting; it is possible to use these effectively in online settings and they can both computer and human marked.   

A podcast is a recorded speech,  similar to  an essay but spoken aloud. The candidate will gather information on a subject and present it in audio form, usually within a given duration.  

  A practical examination is an examination of a candidate’s practical skills. For example, a chemistry practical examination may involve a supervised experiment, where the candidate’s method and practises are assessed.  

Reflective writing involves producing an analytical written piece in which the candidate describes an event or idea, thinking in depth and from differing perspectives, and trying to analyse the item, often referencing a previous model or theory on the subject.  

A research plan is a proposed idea for a study (or gathering of research) on a  particular subject . The proposal should cover what questions will be asked and how, any prior research that has taken place on the subject, how the results will be evaluated and how much time the process will take.  

A rubric is a chart or plan that identifies criteria for evaluating a piece of a student's work, be it an essay test, a paper, or some other student production. The best rubrics offer the clearest details for each category of evaluation so that a student's products can be evaluated consistently.   

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of a module by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Summative assessments are often high stakes as they credit and/or professional recognition is awarded on successful completion.

Validity is a term that describes how well a test, or a test item, measures what it claims to measure, accurately predicts a behaviour, or accurately contributes to decision making about the presence or absence of a characteristic.  It is vital that all assessments have strong validity so that they meet the required standards within the university for all phases of learning.    

  A video report is a presentation via video (and often audio) on a  particular subject . The report will take on a structured narrative  similar to  that of an essay, but with the evidence, analysis and conclusions all taking place in video format.  

Download a Word version of the 'Guide to effective online assessment'

Further support

The UCL Arena team member assigned to your Faculty are also available to provide advice on both assessment design and marking/feedback considerations for each approach. 

The Arena teaching fellows are assigned to faculties as follows:

• Bartlett  – Alex Standen and Brent Carnell
• Engineering  – Nick Grindle
• Maths and Physical Sciences   – Peter Fitch 
• Brain Sciences  – Karen Matthewman
• Life Sciences   – Martin Compton
• Population Health Sciences  – Rebecca Lindner 
• Medical Sciences  – Jenny Griffiths
• Joint Faculties  –  Jesper Hansen – (A & H) and Jason Davies
• Laws   – Alex Standen
• IoE   – Silvia Colaiacomo

UCL Changemakers  in Arena provides support and guidance for staff/student partnerships, including co-design of assessment.

For questions, suggestions or feedback, email the  Teaching Continuity mailbox .

Further information

Word version of the 'Guide to effective online assessment'

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What is Coursework

First of all, you need to understand what is coursework and how to write it. When one is writing a coursework, they have to do profound research that will reveal their knowledge base. A coursework may consist of design studies, field work, projects, long essays, and other kinds of work. Depending on the particular course, it can be performed in a number of ways. You need to write a coursework not only to show what you know about a particular subject and enlarge your knowledge base but also to prepare yourself to deal with the work you will need to perform in the future.

The Oxford Dictionary defines coursework as the type of practical or written work performed by a student and assessed by their professor. Hopefully, it makes the coursework meaning clearer for you.

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Why coursework is necessary and who assigns it.

Now when you know what is coursework, you also have to understand why it is needed. Usually, a student's mentor or teacher assigns coursework as it is a part of the course structure. Writing a coursework is important since it helps the student reflect on what they have learned from the given course. Realizing the coursework meaning, one can understand the material better and see how their knowledge can be applied in various situations. This type of work also reveals the student's way of thinking and helps them learn how to express their thoughts. Coursework has an utterly diverse nature. A student's instructor can ask them to perform it in a written way and work on an essay, term paper, or thesis (this form of coursework is the most widespread). A coursework can also be done in a more creative way; for example, a student may be asked to create a sculpture. At times, taking a test is preferred by the instructor. In some cases, several types of coursework can be combined into one. Choosing a specific type or a combination of types depends on the course. Whatever the kind of coursework is, it always requires being evaluated. The student's mark will be based on their understanding of the topic, creativity, as well as on the innovative aspect of their work.

How to Perform the Most Important Types of Coursework?

Even understanding the coursework meaning, students have mixed feelings on it. Some of them like to do research, learn new information, and write about the results, while for others, it seems to be an unnecessary task, or even a burden. Whichever opinion is true for you, being a student, you will still have to write a coursework at some point. For this reason, you need to know how to do it successfully. Below you see the list of rules and guidelines that will make this task easier for you.

Read these steps carefully and make sure you follow them as they will help you get started.

Coursework that requires writing:

• Carry out superficial research on the topic of your coursework.
• Settle on your topic.
• Work on the structure of your coursework.
• Make a summary or an abstract and confirm it with your instructor.
• Conduct profound research to find all the information you need.
• While writing, keep on researching the topic more.
• When you are done, check your coursework for plagiarism.
• Make a reference list.

To make sure that your coursework features a good content that is clear and easy-to-understand for your reader, work on the structure of your work. Check out if you maintain its consistency, use relevant information, complete your topic, and make it look concise.<

Coursework that requires to create a model, sculpture, or artwork:

• Find a design or concept you like.
• See how it can be applied to the area of your study.
• Think about what you want to create and decide on the scale of this object.
• Decide what kind of materials you need to finalize your work.
• Find everything you need for creating your artwork.
• Make sure that you have a mental image of the result and make a rough sketch of it.
• Begin working!

Key points you should consider:

• Originality - You need to be sure that your topic or idea is original. It is an extremely important point you have to keep in mind from the very beginning of your work. Numerous researches are being done by numerous people, so you have to make yours stand out.
• Need - Your coursework should be able to answer certain questions or find solutions. For that, it has to identify the key problems and help the reader understand them clearly.
• Uniqueness - Both your topic and your content have to be unique. Make sure to avoid plagiarism and never copy information from other sources. Conduct surveys or prepare questionnaires to add originality to the content of your coursework.
• Your input - This aspect is very important. When working on your coursework, you need to reflect on your topic a lot and understand how you can apply it. If you do it, the purpose of writing a coursework is served. For this reason, do your best to make as much input in your work as possible.
• Outcomes & future applications - Even if you have worked hard and put a lot of effort into writing your coursework, it can turn out to be a failure in case you do not show useful outcomes. Therefore, you need to provide a well-made analysis of the information you used. Make a well-structured conclusion for your topic and talk about the way it can be researched further.

If you keep all these points in mind and follow the guidelines, you will certainly write a good coursework.

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The A-level debacle shows why coursework and AS-levels should never have been scrapped

The all-or-nothing education system introduced by Michael Gove was always bound to fail at some point. 

By Rohan Banerjee

The impact of Covid-19 on A-level results this year has renewed the case for coursework. With pupils unable to sit their exams due to the lockdown, grades were awarded based on predictions from their teachers, which were then moderated by Ofqual, England’s exam regulator, and its equivalents in Northern Ireland and Wales. Ofqual used a statistical model, which took into account factors such as a school ’ s recent exam history, and students’ previous external exam results.

In others words, students have not been judged solely on their own performance, but also other people’s, or other people’s perceptions of them. And this seems remarkably unfair. 

Almost 40 per cent (39.1 per cent) of A-Level grades were downgraded. The 39.1 per cent total comprised 35.6 per cent of results being lowered by one grade, 3.3 per cent reduced by two grades, and 0.2 per cent by three grades. A frenzy around university places has followed, with thousands of students, as it stands, potentially missing out on the chance to attend their preferred institution.

[see also:  The A-level results injustice shows why algorithms are never neutral ]

Students can appeal their grades – as many will do – by notifying their school or college, which will then send evidence, such as their mock exam results, to Ofqual. But the lack of consistency in how mocks are administered from school to school presents another challenge. 

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The all-or-nothing education system installed  in England when Michael Gove was education secretary (2010-2014) was bound to be exposed eventually. And the pandemic underlines its absurdity.

The Conservatives scrapped coursework for most subjects across GCSEs and A-levels between 2013 and 2017. The party also decoupled AS-levels, the exams sat at the end of Year 12, from the overall A-level grade awarded in Year 13, meaning that a student’s qualification is assessed entirely on one exam or a series of exams at the end of a two-year course. 

The abandonment of modular course structures – that allowed people to pace and compartmentalise their learning over several different sittings – means that students are under extreme pressure throughout their studies, culminating in one intense flurry that takes little consideration of their health or other circumstances. 

Coursework – usually essays or project-based reports – is often criticised as a less intense mode of assessment that is susceptible to cheating. Parental and teacher influence or input into submitted work are cited as the key problems. But, surely, there are ways of better policing coursework, rather than abandoning it entirely?

If students had completed externally moderated coursework before the pandemic, it would have given a more reliable projection of their ability than what former students were graded the previous year. Moreover, this criterion unfairly disadvantages high-achieving pupils who attend historically lower-achieving schools. 

[see also:  Top A-level grades soar at private schools as sixth form colleges lose out ]

While coursework isn’t suited to every subject – maths and the sciences lend themselves more easily to exams – there is some merit in the skills it requires. Researching, referencing and reading broadly to produce one overall project over an extended period of time are the essence of most university courses: the very thing that A-levels are supposed to lead towards. Why, then, should the process of learning be reduced to a giant memory test? 

A return to coursework, with reforms enabled by technology, is possible in the future. Students can be assessed remotely and even, if essential, under timed conditions – albeit for longer periods than an hour or two. Coursework also better serves those students who struggle with exam-induced anxiety. And if Ofqual is so concerned about teacher input, why not let the exam boards grade the coursework, as they would have done for modular exams in the past? 

This year’s A-levels – and most likely the GCSE results announced next week – have delivered mass injustice. Too many students have been let down by a postcode lottery. But, beyond that, the rigid, unforgiving absolutism of the education system has been exposed. Coursework is not a panacea but it is, perhaps, a leveller. And in the event of another pandemic, it would at least give students more agency over their futures.

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What Is a Coursework and How to Write a Paper: A Simple Guide

• 24 August 2023
• 13 min read

Academic writing is an essential activity in high education and comes in various forms. Basically, one of these forms is coursework writing, where instructors assess students’ level of understanding of a course during a semester. In this case, unlike other papers, coursework assignments evaluate students’ understanding of the course and not just a topic in the class. Moreover, various forms of coursework writing include essays, term papers, theses, dissertations, and report projects. Hence, students need to learn what is a coursework assignment and how to write such a paper.

What Is a Coursework Paper

College and university students undertake different kinds of academic exercises, with writing projects taking a significant portion. Basically, one of these exercises is the writing of coursework, an assignment that they submit at the end of the semester. Ideally, this kind of work assesses students’ understanding of a particular field of study within a single semester. In turn, instructors rarely require students to write a coursework assignment for things they learned during the previous semester.

For writing your paper, these links will be helpful:

• Essay Writing Service
• How to Write a Research Paper
• How to Write a Research Proposal
• How to Write a Term Paper
• How to Write a Case Study

Definition of a Coursework

By definition, a coursework assignment is an academic project that students undertake in the course of study and which they must submit before the closure of the semester. For example, such an assignment aims to evaluate students’ level of knowledge and skills acquisition, meaning the work contributes to students’ final grades. Ideally, coursework is what students learn during a semester, and such an assignment is meant to measure how well they have understood the subject matter. Moreover, students use reliable and relevant sources to study, examine and evaluate the chosen coursework topic. Therefore, a coursework assignment is very similar to other writing assignments, such as essays, reports, thesis writing , and dissertations.

Differences With Other Papers

In the course of their classes, students write different types of papers , including essays and reports. Basically, the major difference between coursework writing and these papers is that it assesses students’ understanding of what they have discovered throughout the semester. In contrast, essays and other papers assess students’ understanding of a specific topic, concept, result , or theory. Moreover, students may need to address an issue in their coursework that they might have addressed in an essay assignment sometime during the semester. As such, a coursework assignment is broad in scope than other papers.

Expectations

Like essays and other papers, a coursework assignment varies from one area of study to another. For example, there is a coursework for the English subject and another for the sciences. Therefore, students are expected to complete their coursework assignments according to their instructor’s or department’s instructions. In most cases, this expectation includes presenting the assignment in an essay format, where they select a title of their choice. Depending on the subject, some coursework assignments expect students to collect, examine, infer, and report data when answering a specific question.

When it comes to the grading of academic assignments, instructors look at how well a student has attended to all the requirements and expectations. For instance, these requirements include writing about a choice of themes or text excerpts in a given format. In this case, students must use an approach that they believe is likely to give them a higher grade, meaning an approach that helps them to answer the question methodically, logically, and critically by using relevant information. In essence, these are three dimensions for grading a coursework assignment.

Constructing a Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Write a Coursework Assignment

Like an essay, a coursework assignment takes a particular structure. Basically, students should understand the core components and make sure that they address them in their academic writing . In this case, the most significant issue for students is to ensure a logical flow of ideas. Moreover, developing a thesis statement is essential to provide high-quality essays with a guideline on focal issues. Primarily, these issues are the concepts and theories that the student has learned in a specific course during the semester.

Step 1: Preparation

Planning or preparation is the first step in writing a coursework paper. For instance, the essence of any form of academic writing is to measure a student’s level of understanding about a particular area of study. Since the coursework measures what a student has learned in a given course, it is paramount for each person to prepare well when executing the assignment. Here, learners have to choose a topic that they are comfortable with, one that they are passionate about. Additionally, they should generate ideas about their coursework by deciding what is relevant and what is not. In this case, the reasoning that guides this decision is the expectation outlined in assignment instructions. Lastly, students should understand their audience – consumers of their work or readers. Like any other assignment, the audience is course instructors. Hence, writers should ensure coursework satisfies a curiosity of readers.

Step 2: Setting Up

After preparation, students should set up the stage for coursework writing. Basically, the first preoccupation is to find sources relevant to the assignment prompt – those that are more likely to provide enough evidence and support needed claims. As students review credible sources , they should take notes to provide a strong argumentation in their coursework. Then, another activity involves deciding on the coursework outline, which should help answer the assignment prompt logically and critically. Lastly, learners should create an annotated bibliography, a summary of each source they intend to use as the basis of their arguments in the coursework.

Step 3: Writing the Coursework

After preparing and setting up the stage, students should start writing the coursework assignment. In this case, armed with notes taken during the review of reliable sources and the outline they have created, students should start with the first draft, where they develop a thesis statement. Basing all opinions and arguments on the thesis, writers should answer the assignment prompt methodically, logically, and critically. Moreover, the thesis statement should ‘hook’ the audience and make them interested in reading the substantial part of the paper – the body. In essence, the body is where students use all the evidence they have gathered about the topic, while the thesis informs the audience of what individuals have focused on in the paper.

Step 4: Wrapping It Up

It is normal for a writer to make mistakes when writing an academic document. For example, these mistakes include inconsistent arguments, irrelevant content, punctuation errors, and countless grammatical mistakes. Therefore, after completing the draft, students should read it through, at least twice, to identify these mistakes and correct them. Basically, the processes of correction include revising and editing the paper. Regarding revisions, students should give their work to a friend or mentor to read it through. In their feedback, these individuals are likely to point out areas where authors should make corrections for the paper to be logical and interesting to read. Concerning editing the paper, students should proofread their work to ensure it is free of spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and other grammatical mishaps.

Step 5: Developing Body Paragraphs

The body paragraph of any academic text, including a coursework assignment, utilizes several features to make the paper logical. Basically, the first feature is the topic sentence that opens up each paragraph. Also, the purpose of this feature is to strengthen the central idea captured in the thesis statement. Then, the rest of the paragraph structure backs up this claim using evidence gathered from different sources. In turn, another feature is a concluding sentence, which closes each paragraph. For instance, the goal of this aspect is to connect the topic sentence with the thesis statement. Finally, another feature is a transition – words and phrases that help readers sense a logical flow of ideas throughout the paper. In short, writers use transitions within and between paragraphs to create a logical flow of information and ideas.

Step 6: Referencing Format and Peer Reviewing

Besides ensuring the paper is written methodically and logically, students should see that it meets the highest academic writing standards. In this regard, they should ensure it follows after a particular format – APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago/Turabian. In most cases, the assignment prompt dictates the format that learners should use. Moreover, the referencing format informs about the structure of the paper and the format of citations. In turn, another essential activity that students should perform is to commit the paper to peer review. Here, authors give coursework papers to distinguished scholars, such as a professor or classmate, to assess the validity and quality of information used, including sources.

Step 7: Writing the Final Draft of a Coursework Paper

After subjecting the first draft to vigorous scrutiny through revisions, editions, and peer review, students should start writing the final draft of a coursework paper. Basically, this draft should be thoroughly polished, meaning it should be free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes, as well as inconsistent arguments and irrelevant sentences. Moreover, it should indicate an effective use of transitions in the body paragraphs. In short, the final draft is an improved version of the first draft because writers have revised and edited it and incorporated feedback from a friend, mentor, or professor. However, they still need to read through the final draft, at least once, to ensure it is perfect before submission to the department. In turn, if students note several mistakes, it means another revision is necessary. Hence, the student’s focus should be the content, organization of ideas, style of writing, and format.

Types of Coursework

Given that coursework assignments test students’ level of understanding about a course’s content in a given semester, it means that it takes several forms. For example, these include a term paper, a Master’s thesis , a dissertation , or a report project. Ideally, the coursework is an essential requirement for a student to complete the course successfully. It also means the coursework is essential to be awarded a degree. In turn, the only difference between these types of coursework assignments is that they take a different approach to examining and analyzing a course content, with each subject taking a unique approach.

Coursework Writing Techniques

The dream of every student is to pass any assessment and attain a higher grade. In a coursework assignment, students can utilize different techniques to ensure they attain higher grades after assessments. As indicated earlier about the grading of coursework, learners should use an approach that they believe answers the assignment prompt methodically, logically, and critically. As a result, every technique they use must allow them to answer the question in a way that satisfies these three grading dimensions.

1. Compare and Contrast Technique

A compare and contrast essay technique is about analyzing two subjects, ideas, concepts, or theories by comparing them, contrasting them, or doing both. Basically, the purpose of answering a coursework assignment through this approach is that students must not state obvious things. Instead, they need to shed light on the subtle differences or unexpected similarities between subjects, ideas, concepts, or theories.

2. Cause and Effect Technique

A cause and effect essay technique allows writers to develop their paper’s body by analyzing the reasons for and the consequences of a decision, action, or event. When organizing a paragraph, students adopt a structure that allows them to arrange the causes and effects in a chronological or reverse chronological order. Alternatively, authors can present their arguments through emphasis, starting from least important to most important aspects, or vice versa.

3. Investigation Technique

An investigation technique involves undertaking an in-depth examination of a topic, idea, concept, or theory. Basically, this technique’s primary goal is to demonstrate that students have gained a thorough knowledge of the subject, which is indicated in their methodical, logical, and critical analysis and presentation of information. In this case, ensuring that research findings are interpreted and presented in an organized manner throughout the essay is critical. Ultimately, the technique enables writers to demonstrate their articulate understanding of the various viewpoints about the issue under investigation. 

How to Present Strong Arguments

For an academic paper to capture the audience’s attention and interest, students must not only develop a thesis statement but also ensure they use strong arguments to back up the central idea in the statement. Basically, the “they say, I say” technique is the simplest method to present arguments properly. In this regard, the information that the student uses in answering the coursework assignment prompt should be free of plagiarism. For instance, they need to cite sources properly. Then, another way to ensure that the writing is persuasive is to confirm that they have attained the required word count without counting footnotes, endnotes, references, and appendices. Ideally, selecting a topic that one is comfortable with and passionate about enables the writing to be high-quality in terms of argumentation. Also, students should discuss alternatives with their mentor or instructor. Finally, the thesis statement should not be complicated.

Major Mistakes in Courseworks

Students make different kinds of mistakes when writing academic texts. For example, a common mistake in coursework writing involves a scope, where students fail to focus on one area of the topic and instead tries to be broad in their argumentation. In this case, the problem with this approach is that they waste space talking about irrelevant material, leaving them with little space to write about the core idea. Also, the solution to this problem is to develop a thesis statement that sets out the paper’s specific agenda. In doing so, students can realize every time they go off-topic.

Another common mistake involves colloquialism, where students use a language that is not standard for academic writing. Basically, this problem is particularly common with students who become excited about the topic and try to express their ideas creatively. Moreover, the problem is that the coursework shifts from being evidence-based to a document about the student’s opinion. In turn, the solution to this problem is to pick a topic that is exciting and critically discussed in the literature. As a result, they can identify several sources that discuss the topic to use as bases for evidence of their claims and arguments about the topic.

Sample of a General Coursework Outline

The coursework paper adopts a typical outline, as indicated below:

• Table of Contents
• Abstract or Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Body Paragraph(s)
• Reference list

Reason for Similarity of a Coursework Assignment With a Research Paper

Ideally, the outline of a coursework assignment is similar to that of a research paper. In this case, an abstract serves as a brief overview of a research paper and informs readers of the writer’s focal points. More importantly, the coursework outline has a body, where writers use different paragraphs to make an argument about the topic. Also, each of the paragraphs begins with a topic sentence and ends with a concluding sentence. Like research papers, body paragraphs of a coursework assignment serve to cement the writer’s claims and arguments, which are linked to the thesis statement.

Summing Up on What Is a Coursework Assignment and How to Write a Paper

A coursework assignment is among the writing assignments that students in colleges and universities undertake in preparation for their degree. Unlike other papers, this assignment assesses students’ understanding of what they have learned in a course in a given semester. As such, students must complete and submit it before the semester closes. Moreover, the different types of coursework include essays, term papers, theses, dissertations, and report projects.

Students should master the following tips when it comes to writing a coursework assignment:

• Choose an exciting topic and stick to it. Basically, students come across tons of exciting information about their topic. However, to avoid going off-script, they should focus on their core subject and avoid the temptation of using data that may prove irrelevant.
• Use evidence (quotes and statistics) selectively. In this case, relevancy is a significant indicator of a high-grade paper. As such, where students are not going to refer to some data directly because it adds no value to their argument, they should avoid dwelling on it in their paper.
• Cite sources correctly. When citing sources, students should note the standards of the format in use – APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago/Turabian – as each has a unique approach.
• Revise, edit, and proofread the paper. In turn, high-quality coursework writing should be free of inconsistent arguments, irrelevant sentences, and spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes.

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Stop counting coursework towards GCSE grades, urges exam board

The UK's largest examination board has called for an end to coursework counting towards pupils' GCSE grades in England, labelling it as cumbersome, open to abuse and "disliked by many teachers and loathed in some subjects".

The report by the OCR exam board comes as the Department for Education and the exams regulator Ofqual mull proposals to revise GCSEs , including the role of coursework, known as "controlled assessment".

Mark Dawe, the board's chief executive, said: "OCR recognises that the way coursework is currently assessed in the classroom fails to give reliable results. It's time for a major rethink on coursework so that everyone can have full confidence in the exam system."

Michael Gove, the education secretary, said this year that internal assessment such as coursework "should be kept to a minimum and used only where there is a compelling case to do so", making grades dependent on a final examination at the end of two years' study.

Controlled assessment – work done in the classroom, supervised by teachers under exam conditions – was introduced in 2009. The amount of coursework currently used towards final grades for each subject varies, with up to 60% of marks in GCSE English coming from coursework, compared with 25% in science.

The OCR report says internally assessed coursework is vulnerable to being abused by schools. Although it stops short of accusing schools of cheating, the report makes reference to schools using coursework to "optimise students' grades", and "upward-tilted marking" caused by "potential leniency".

"[Teachers] are torn between needing to continually improve their exam results and yet also to be impartial assessors of their pupils' coursework," said Dawe.

Among the alternatives to teacher-led assessment, the report suggests exam boards conduct assessments through school visits, but notes that this would be "frighteningly expensive, and complex to organise".

Some educationalists argue that removing coursework could disproportionately hurt girls' results. For 25 years girls have outperformed boys in most subjects at GCSE level, while some research suggests boys tend to perform more confidently in exams alone.

In a separate submission to Ofqual, OCR said the regulator's plan to replace GCSE letter grades with a numerical grading system of 1 to 8 points would not show a clean break with past exams because it was too close to the old system.

"Where the old and new grades can be readily equated, there are huge pressures and disadvantages both for pupils on the old system and pupils who are exposed to the first five or so years of the new system," OCR wrote.

OCR also objected to Ofqual's statement that GCSE performance should be used to hold schools accountable. "Exam results are only one indicator by which a school should be held accountable, and not the only one. There are a wide range of factors such as teaching quality, access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, pastoral care, leadership which need to be accounted for, and focusing too heavily on examination results can have detrimental effects on the others," OCR said.

The Department for Education said: "We agree that unnecessary coursework undermines the reliability of assessment. That is why we want to cut back on coursework, modules and controlled assessment. These reforms will restore confidence in GCSEs and tackle grade inflation.

"We have asked Ofqual to review how we might limit coursework and controlled assessment. Ofqual's consultation ended this week."

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Online Learning Success

How to succeed at online courses for interest or to benefit your career., advantages and disadvantages of online and classroom learning.

By Pat Bowden, published May 30, 2017.

Most of us are familiar with classroom learning from our schooldays but online learning is a new field. There are several differences between online and classroom or on-campus learning.

Online Learning Advantages:

• No need to travel, saving both time and money.
• Whenever and wherever you like: early morning, while commuting or eating, during work breaks or in the evening. At home, in coffee shops, or on the train. Take a break anytime to give your mind a short rest.
• Online learning usually includes pre-recorded videos. Sometimes these are simple recordings of lectures with or without accompanying slides. Other courses and MOOCs are dynamic learning experiences when videos are recorded in different locations or produced with green screen technology, sound effects, music and advanced graphics. Sometimes videos include embedded questions that students have to answer before continuing the video.
• MOOCs are self-contained. No need to buy textbooks although some MOOCs have optional texts.
• You can speed up videos during easy parts, and slow them down to understand more difficult concepts. This facility is particularly useful if you are not a native speaker of the language, or if your instructor has an unfamiliar accent that you have difficulty understanding.
• You can pause videos while writing notes or re-watch them as often as necessary. Many courses also provide transcripts for their videos. If an interactive transcript is provided, you can click on a relevant section of the transcript to watch that part of the video.
• If videos or transcripts can be downloaded to your device you will then have unlimited access to them.
• Many MOOCs provide recommended and optional reading materials and extra resources. These can include useful websites or papers freely available online.
• You can take free MOOCs over and over again without losing money if you need more time to succeed.
• In courses with dynamic discussion forums you can discuss issues with fellow students from all around the world.

Online Learning Disadvantages:

• No face-to-face contact with fellow students or course staff.
• No student facilities such as laboratories or libraries, although some MOOCs incorporate practical activities to be done at home, virtual laboratory experiments, reading lists of freely-available papers or temporary subscriptions to journals.
• It can be hard to find answers to questions or resolve difficulties, especially when discussion forum participation is low.
• You need effective self-motivation.

Classroom Learning Advantages:

• You can ask questions (assuming the instructor welcomes questions).
• You can discuss issues with fellow students.
• There is ample opportunity for social interaction and support.
• You have access to on-campus student facilities.

Classroom Learning Disadvantages:

• Travel time and cost.
• Attendance times can be restrictive or inconvenient.
• Shy students may have trouble approaching the instructor with questions.
• You usually have to sit through each lecture even if you already know most of the material.
• You may be required to buy compulsory textbooks.

How to Overcome the Disadvantages of Online Learning

Because humans are social creatures who generally love company, the solitary experience of online learning can be a major hurdle for some students. It can be lonely unless you have a friend who is taking the course with you. Many courses attempt to address this by encouraging discussions in course forums which can be general discussion forums where students can introduce themselves, as well as focused discussions on particular aspects of the course. Posting your comments and thoughts to the forums can be helpful to overcome these feelings of isolation, particularly in courses that use community mentors or teaching assistants to respond to student posts.

In some courses, participation in discussions is sluggish. To stimulate some online social interaction, write plenty of comments in the student discussion forums. Fellow students are more likely to engage with you if you have comments in several threads. You may need to be patient, though, because it may take days for replies to be posted.

Do you live in a large city? You may be able to join or start up a community meetup or hangout. Always keep personal safety in mind while meeting internet acquaintances.

Another option is to create your own support network amongst your family members and friends. Even if they aren’t studying with you, you may be able to talk about your study ups and downs. Every little bit of support can help!

If you are having trouble understanding something, have you listened to the videos more than once? Have you taken a break, perhaps left it until the next day to look at the material again. Sometimes when we look at it after a break, the meaning suddenly becomes clear. Is the meaning still eluding you? You can post your questions to the course forums, but sometimes it can take hours or days for an answer. Sometimes your question simply remains unanswered, so you may need a different strategy. Have you checked all of the course resources? Many courses have lists of supplementary materials. Books or research articles may be able to be ordered through your local library. Type your question into your favourite search engine. Read the results but be aware that not all internet posts are reliable, even Wikipedia. They can be used as a starting point, though, and cross checking your research with the course materials can help sort the wheat from the chaff. Google Scholar can be a useful source of reliable research papers.

Most of the above comments about online learning refer to MOOCs. If you are enrolled in a paid online subject as part of a small class, you should have online access to course staff who can answer your individual queries in online chat form or perhaps via Skype or similar. The very nature of MOOCs means that direct interaction between instructor and individual students is virtually non-existent. The only exception is if the instructor participates in the course discussion forums.

A Final Thought

As a student, make the most of all your course resources and the flexibility of MOOCs. Use every spare moment to look at your course and keep your motivation level high.

More from my site

The advantages and disadvantages of coursework as a means of assessment

• Published: October 10, 2021
• Updated: October 10, 2021
• University / College: UCL
• Level: Bachelor's
• Language: English

The advantages and disadvantages of work assessment Introduction Assigning work is the most common criteria of conducting assessment all over the world. In almost every school, college, university, course works are given substantial percentage of the total marks of any course. Importance of coursework cannot be denied, however, it has certain drawbacks as well. Advantages Attending classes in schools is essential but it’s of no use if the subjects learnt at school, are not being practiced at home. The primary purpose of assigning coursework is to provide learning tasks to students for self-studying. It helps students in: Brainstorming Enhancing learning skills Promoting student’s creativity Promoting student’s motivation Assigning coursework helps teacher in analyzing each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Some students are good at speaking while others are good at writing. Course works also save time of both student and teachers. Teachers cannot be with students all day long, but assigning course works helps teachers in assessing each individual student’s capabilities. Coursework increases student’s participation which through selection of data, formulating it in appropriate manner, revising it and then evaluating the completed assignment. Disadvantages As I see, invention of internet is the main problem of coursework. No longer children portray their own viewpoint in regards to their assigned tasks and cut and paste the ideas, facts and figures of others. Before the advent of internet, assigning coursework to students used to be very successful as it helped them in illustrating their own creativity in their coursework, but nowadays, course works are more inclined towards plagiarizing. At times, even the student doesn’t know what he has written in assignments. As a matter of determining how much information a student has attained from a coursework, in my opinion, is a useless tool. The focus is more on presenting the assignment instead of learning something out of it. In actual, there’s little learning taking place in coursework scenarios and the tendency of peers to copy each other’s assignment is higher. Due to the reason of copy paste phenomena, universities, schools and colleges are now more concerned in investing in plagiarism detecting software so that anything which is lifted from the internet can be detected. Recommendation Coursework has always been the most beneficial and effective tool to enhance the capabilities of students, but the advent of internet is making it ineffective. It is necessary for teachers to design and allot the coursework in a way that there are lesser chances of plagiarizing and higher chances boosting student’s skills. Perhaps, by the little modifications it will be feasible to restore the effectiveness in coursework. References Winter, Richard. (2003). Contextualising the patchwork text: addressing problems of Coursework assessment in higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 40(2, 112-122.

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