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Wading through treacle: CAA at the University of Bristol
conference contribution
posted on 2006-05-23, 16:43 authored by Ros O'Leary, Julian CookOver 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.
History
School
- University Academic and Administrative Support
Department
- Professional Development
Research Unit
- CAA Conference
Pages
55170 bytesCitation
O'LEARY and COOK, 2001. Wading through treacle: CAA at the University of Bristol. IN: Proceedings of the 5th CAA Conference, Loughborough: Loughborough UniversityPublisher
© Loughborough UniversityPublication date
2001Notes
This is a conference paper.Language
- en
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