Improvement of online assessment and advancing the learning analytics tools for the Medical Sciences Division
Improvement of online assessment and advancing the learning analytics tools for the Medical Sciences Division
The University of Oxford has been nationally and internationally recognised for its reputation in research and teaching excellence. There are nearly 24,000 students enrolled in its graduate and postgraduate programs, 43% of whom are international students.
In 2018 The Medical Sciences Division of the University of Oxford decided to start collaboration with Inspera in 2018 and the first trial was conducted in April the same year. They worked closely with the Inspera R&D team to advance the learning analytics tools available in the platform. They agreed on a testing phase and initiated the migration of data needed to perform the agreed objective of computer-marked assessments in 2019.
From early on the goal was to improve marking objectivity, the availability of questions and assessment times. Every year the Medical Sciences Division of the University of Oxford runs more than 160 online assessments for over 17,000 participants.
During the first year of collaboration, the Medical Sciences Division used Inspera Assessment to run 70 summative exams for 20,000 students.
Inspera Assessment offers a large variety of question types, which incorporate tools such as images, equations, audio and video. A question bank (a database of all the available online assessment questions for a subject) supports the examiners' job of setting questions. The academic staff responded positively to both the functionality and design offered by Inspera Assessment.
The feedback from both teachers and students has been positive. The journey towards full implementation of online assessment is an ongoing process with far-reaching ambitions for the University of Oxford.
The Medical Sciences Division continues to expand the number of departments using online assessment and is trialling online essay questions in Summer 2020.
