The keenly anticipated Special Assessment Uplift is now live! The new smart application form has been implemented and is now being used by students, and PowerBI dashboards are now available for staff. The system is powered by is a custom integration that has been developed between Callista and Courseloop, enabling student enrolment data to be cross-referenced with assessment data. This delivers huge benefits to student experience, to staff workload and data access – take a look below to see how the integration serves both the student application form and staff dashboards.

Application form

Students now apply for special assessment provisions via a single unified application form in AskUNE, replacing the previous PDF forms. All unit enrolment and assessment data is pre-populated, and multiple assessments and multiple units can be included in the same application. This means that when students need support, a single quick and easy application covers all their assessments.

The integration behind the new form eliminates a huge amount of manual data entry, saving hundreds of hours of staff time (we anticipate over a year we will save almost 1000 hours in the Exams & eAssessment team alone…!) and significantly improving turnaround time for students, who should receive responses in much quicker timeframes. It also offers significant improvements in data accuracy, security and privacy.

A screenshot of part of the SRM application form, showing the fields for unit assessment, reason and outcome sought. The outcome sought dropdown menu is expanded to show the various Special Assessment provisions available to apply for.

Dashboards

Data dashboards are now available in PowerBI that allow staff to access real-time data around Special Assessment provisions, including volume, trends, outcomes and more at both unit and aggregate levels. These dashboards can be for a range of purposes such as Board of Examiners, discipline convenor monitoring, governance reporting and so on, and enable easy access to a much richer range of data to support effective decision-making and data-informed practice.

The aggregate dashboard can be accessed by Heads of School, ADTLs, SEC chairs, Education Futures leadership and the Exams & eAssessment Team. Staff in other appropriate roles requiring access can request access via PowerBI.

Unit level dashboards will be available to Unit Coordinators via Atrium early in the new year. This will enable Unit Coordinators to access Special Assessment data alongside other key data sets and provide real-time oversight of applications and insight into student support needs. 

A screenshot of the aggregate PowerBI dashboard for BoE and leadership roles. Filters are set to 'all' and two line graphs are shown - one for 'total Specials by month and academic year', and one for 'percentage of Specials applications by total enrolments'.

Further benefits

Now that the new system is implemented, we will be focusing our attention on achieving further benefits and efficiencies, including collaborating with colleagues in Admin Services to further improve approval processes, and utilising the new rich data set around assessment and enrolment for other key university priorities. Watch this space for updates…!