Wading through treacle: CAA at the University of Bristol

Over the past few years, like many universities the University of Bristol has been considering the way forward with regard to CAA. Also, like many universities it faces the sticky challenge of accommodating very specific and different needs from CAA systems according to academic subject alongside the clear pragmatism and economies of scale gained by supporting one system rather than many universitywide. The University already has several in-house systems including TAL (Test and Learn) and CALNet, both born out of subject specific need, with other departments experimenting with other packages available for example Questionmark and TRIADS. The choice of strategy is further complicated by the emergence and more common use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) which include CAA features, and the impetus to ‘tie-in’ all University systems into a Managed Learning Environment (MLE). Short-term strategy currently takes a pragmatic stop-gap approach and doesn’t commit to any one system in the long-term pending results of further evaluation. The outcome may involve the adoption of one or more CAA systems in the longer term, as well as one or more VLE system. Evaluation of the CAA systems and assessment components of the VLE systems is to take place over the next few months. The evaluation will take the form of student and staff interviews, questionnaires and focus groups. A major part of this analysis will be an assessment of the needs of key institutional stakeholders. A survey of academic staff addressing teaching, learning and assessment needs has already been rolled out and analysed. A new survey is now focusing on the needs of students with respect to online learning, including assessment. This paper reports on the evolution of strategy to date and on the progress of the evaluation studies. It will also provide an overview of the emerging issues and how these apply to other HEIs.