Cadmus, a secure online assessment platform integrated with our Central Learning Environment (currently Blackboard but transitioning to Canvas), is now available University-wide.  

Since the successful roll-out, there has been an increase in the use of Cadmus. To date there have been 111 assessments released to students and overall 156 assessments which represents +39% growth compared to the same period last year.

During Semester 1 2024-25, there has been 21,234 submissions, a significant increase from 2023-24 which saw 7,741 submissions. Overall, for Semester 1, there was a 95.9% positive student experience rating.

Following the successful Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) pilot exam in May 2024 in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health with a 93% student experience score and positive feedback from unit academic staff, the central IT team is planning to trial the LockDown Browser exam functionality of Cadmus.

A student, Level 7 module in Engineering Project Management (Faculty of Science and Engineering) remarked, 'It was a positive experience that improved my confidence in the quality of my work by making the process more integrated and making the guidance more accessible.' 

For more information, please visit our Cadmus page or read the full ITL Case Study.

If you are interested in using Cadmus, please request to join our Teams space or email teaching.learning@manchester.ac.uk

Lead: Jen McBride

The Enhancing Assessment Review (EAR) project began as a small-scale proof-of-concept pilot (EAR 1.0) which ran in the School of Biological Sciences in Spring of 2024. This pilot project took a holistic view of assessment in Semester 1 of Year 2 across two undergraduate programmes – BSc Pharmacology and BSc Zoology – and made recommendations to improve assessments to the programme teams in time for the 2024-25 academic year.

This process resulted in:

• removal of 11 summative assessment points across 4 course units
• removal of 11 summative assessment points across 4 course units
• improved the balance of summative with formative assessment across these units
• reduced summative assessment bunching in Week 12 of the semester
• identified creative and authentic assessments for wider dissemination
• increased the weighting of these creative and authentic assessments to better reflect students’ effort and skills development.

Lead: Jen McBride

Following the initial EAR pilot (EAR 1.0) and at the request of the School Director of Education, this pilot has been rolled out (EAR 2.0) across Years 2 and 3 of all undergraduate programmes in the School of Biological Sciences. This review ran between September 2024 to February 2025. With engagement from programme directors, unit coordinators, Professional Services colleagues, and input from student reps, the review team considered the assessments for lecture-based units in Years 2 and 3 across 15+ UG Biosciences programmes (65 course units) and made recommendations to enhance those assessments.

Recommendations and changes have been discussed and approved through the usual Quality Assurance processes in the School, and will be implemented and delivered to students from September 2025. We estimate that – overall – the changes made through the EAR process result in around 506 fewer marking hours (or around 68 fewer days of marking, based on a 7.5 hr working day), or around 2,018,320 fewer assessment-words. So far, the changes recommended by the team have been well-received by students, academic staff, and professional services staff.

To reach maximum gains from EAR, the process could be scaled up and rolled out further across the institution, following a framework similar to the EAR 1.0 and 2.0 processes with a small team carrying out the review and making recommendations. This could be embedded as an element of the continuous monitoring or periodic review of programmes processes, and ad-hoc reviews as needed. A small team could be established in each faculty or perhaps centrally to carry out reviews; the original EAR team could provide ongoing training.

Lead: Jen McBride

The Group Work Working Group was established in response to a report delivered by the Student's Union (What Matters: Assessment and Feedback Change Project), which identified group work as a source of anxiety and perceived inequity for students and proposed a discontinuation of group work assessments at the University.

Given the importance of group work for students’ development and employability, the GWWG was established to investigate:

• how group work can be enhanced and made to be more effective
• how colleagues can best support students with group work/assessment
• how colleagues can communicate the value of group work to students

Academic and PS colleagues from across all faculties are working to review literature and best practice within and beyond UoM, and develop evidence-informed materialsto support colleagues in the design, delivery and assessment of group work and assessments. The group is developing a searchable Articulate Rise resource and an infographic that can be shared internally and externally. These will also be housed in the Assessment Toolkit and is on schedule to be delivered at the start of the academic year 2025/26.

Working with Cadmus’ product development team, we are developing and piloting a number of solutions to our group work problem statements. Further details of the development plan can be viewed here.