Case Story: Introducingsynopticassessment

Summary	Introducing synoptic assessment to second year undergraduates through paired modules
Group / workshop	ALiC	Status	seed
Project details...

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

The assessment for two or more modules may be combined to form a single
assessment, a so-called ‘synoptic assessment’ (SA).  Both Durham and Leeds
Metropolitan Universities introduced the synoptic assessment approach in the
students' second year of study (Level 2) in the academic year 2006/07, and have
since continued to use and evaluate this learning model.

Table 1 Synoptic assessment 

Table 1 provides a schematic overview of the elements of the implementation of the synoptic
assessment at both universities. 

This learning and teaching approach is currently being evaluated as part of the CETL
ALiC project (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning - Active Learning in
Computing), which is a collaborative project between the universities of Durham,
Leeds Metropolitan (Leeds Met), Leeds and Newcastle (http://www.dur.ac.uk/alic ).

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

Suitable pairings of modules were identified.
Curriculum design was changed to facilitate the pairing of modules.
Assessment was revised to avoid duplication of assessment between the modules and to
highlight the relationships between the subject areas.
Staff were briefed on the changes from traditional methods of assessment to the synoptic
approach.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

The majority of students viewed the SA positively as they believed SA provided
problem scenarios that were closer to the ‘real world’. However, some perceived
drawbacks because they did not want the results from one module affecting the
results from the other module by using a shared assessment.

During the trial of the SA approach at Durham, there was no evidence that the staff
workload was reduced, but the effect was the opposite. The staff workload was
increased due to planning of assessment materials delivery, development of marking
strategy and collaboration efforts SynopticLearningAndAssessment

Several staff at Leeds Met mentioned in this year’s survey an increase in admin
work: “the complexity of combining the subject specific module with another three
modules increased admin somewhat”, “spent an enormous amount of time on admin
related tasks as a result of a poorly managed project”, “academics need more admin
support”. Also mentioned were the need to “fit assignments around the imposed
template” and the “short amount of time allowed to mark cross-faculty module(s)”.

An increase in workload seems to be mainly related to organisational and
administrative tasks though there is evidence of increased workload for staff during
the initial stages of developing the synoptic approach.

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

Important points to consider when introducing synoptic assessment:

• Preliminary organisation and establishment of assessment criteria
• Frequent communications and collaboration amongst staff members who are
  involved in a synoptic learning exercise are necessary to provide a coherent structure
  for the students.
• Particularly when a synoptic approach is introduced to a large number of students, it
  is important to ensure the early availability of shared documentation in order for
  teaching staff to prepare for delivering the module.

Licensing

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