The LOUISA project has recently conducted a second round of user research with students to identify problem areas in the in-course assessment and feedback process.

A previous blog post explained how and why this research was undertaken: 

Conducting a second round of student research to understand students’ experiences of in-course assessment in Learn

The LOUISA team collaborated with University colleagues to identify key themes from the interview data 

 As mentioned in the previous blog post, interviews were conducted with 15 more students across all three Colleges. Using this data, colleagues across the University worked together to identify 13 key problems for students when submitting assessments and reviewing feedback. 

Three problems were prioritised as a focus for the LOUISA project 

Due to time and resource limitations, the LOUISA project is not able to address all 13 problems, so 3 problems were prioritised as a focus for the project. These problems were selected because: 

• They correspond with themes that were identified as priorities by University colleagues during the first round of student interviews (inconsistencies across courses, confusing vocabulary, feedback being difficult to find). 

• Of all the problems identified, they align most closely with the scope and resources of the LOUISA project. 

• Between them, they cover the full process of assessment and feedback for students:  
  • Preparation for assessment. 
  • Submitting and uploading documents. 
  • Reviewing feedback and marks. 

Problem 1. Some students struggle to find information that they need to prepare for an assessment. 

For example: 

• Assessment information is sometimes held in different places, for example, across Learn, email, departmental handbooks and SharePoint. Some students reported having to remember what information sits where. 

• In some cases, there is so much information presented to students in Learn that it is difficult for them to find what they need. 

• Assessment information is sometimes presented differently in Learn across courses for the same programme, so students have to look in different places for each course:  

The only thing I would really have a problem with is sometimes like information about assessment isn’t really like standardised so, across different courses, I would have to look in different places to find specific information about like what the assessment like is about.

Undergraduate student, CMVM 

Problem 2. Some students struggle to know where to submit their assignments in Learn

For example: 

• When there are at least three dropboxes available for the same assignment, students note that they struggle to work out where to submit. 

• Students are sometimes presented with dropbox links that don’t apply to them e.g. for other seminar groups or tutorials, so they have to work out which dropbox is relevant to them. 

• Courses across the same programme have different dropbox configurations, so students must learn where to submit for each course and how those dropboxes work: 

Sometimes they close the platform [after the due date], sometimes they don’t, so you can still submit stuff beyond the time.

Undergraduate student, CSE 

Problem 3. Some students struggle to find their marks and feedback in Learn

For example: 

• Feedback and marks are sometimes posted on different platforms, not just Learn, so it’s not clear to students which feedback sits where. 

• Some students return to the original submission dropbox to find feedback, rather than Gradebook. When there are more than three dropboxes, students noted that it was difficult to remember where they submitted in the first place: 

For most people, 90% of people, they can go to the original drop box. They don’t need to worry about different drop boxes. They might not know, they might find it confusing that there’s all these null sits and they’re like, what does that mean?

Postgraduate student, CAHSS 

• Some students are not told where they should look for feedback on their assessment, so they use trial and error to find it: 

I don’t think it was that obvious at first. I remember when I first started, I didn’t know how to check for feedback. Because I just don’t think this is very, like clicking on the grade is, I can tell because it’s like because it’s blue, I can tell it’s like a hyperlink, but I don’t think it’s that intuitive.

Undergraduate student, CAHSS 

Solutions to prioritised problems will be tested with staff and students

University colleagues are collaborating with the LOUISA team to agree on recommended assessment workflows, which will be usability tested with staff and students across the Colleges.  

These tests will identify any usability problems that arise from the proposed recommendations, so that these can be addressed and improved upon.  

Further links

LOUISA Sharepoint (requires login) 

This post is part four of a series of blog posts about LOUISA UX activities.  

Part 1: 

A UX strategy to improve the course assessment experience for staff and students 

Part 2: 

User research with students to understand the assessment submission and feedback process in Learn 

Part 3: 

Preparing for a second round of student research to understand students’ experiences of in-course assessment in Learn