e-Submission: context

The University uses e-submission for all modules where assessments have been designed for e-submission, or where staff use e-feedback, e-marking and/or e-annotation

Here is a comment from one of our students who has used electronic submission,

“As a part time student who works full time and has to catch 2 buses to get the campus to hand in assignments it was an extremely efficient and convenient method of submitting my assignment.”

e-Submisssion Definitions

• Have a look the glossary of terms that are often used in connection with computer aided assessment.

Advantages of using e-submission

There are many advantages of using e-submission though, and a review of the literature shows the following:

• Ease of use and accessibility for all learners, saving them time and money
• Analysis of electronic submission from the Open University shows that fewer students hand work in late than with hard copy
• Staff can see immediately after a deadline, who has submitted and who is yet to submit
• Feedback can be given through electronic return of feedback sheets, making a timely and accessible impact on student learning
• Ensures all assignments will be word processed and legible
• No more staff time spent collecting, distributing, and storing assignments
• Can readily submit assignments to plagiarism detection software, where it is appropriate, and in line with University guidelines
• Easy to check word counts and the length of the assignment
• Annotate scripts electronically using the Comments facility in Word and use banks of comments to cut and paste corrections to common errors e.g. referencing conventions and links to web-sites which can provide further helpful information

Before you start

Points to remember when using e-submission are to:

• Ensure your students include a cover sheet to their submission - Example cover sheet (word doc - 33k - opens in a new window)
• Be clear with students and in your module guides about what file types you will accept, put this instruction in the assignment brief
• Ensure students put their student numbers rather than names on the actual work, to promote use of anonymous marking
• Consider whether it is more useful to learners and more environmentally friendly to mark scripts online using Word, rather than print scripts off. The students then have a legible and quickly returned copy for a feedback and out environmental foot print is reduced.

Results of a University of Wolverhampton pilot study

• The University carried out a pilot study (Hogan, 2008) of electronic submission in Semester 2, 2008, with the following headline figures, from 116 student responses and 15 staff replies:
• 77.55% of students submitted their work from home.
• 64.56% reported that it was more convenient than paper submission.
• When asked would you prefer to use electronic submission again?’ 77.63% of students responded that they would and 22.37% that they would not.
• Asked would you like to use e-submission for all of your assignments in future where possible? 73.68% of students said they would whereas 26.32% would prefer not to.
• A majority of lecturers (54.44%) marked the work at home 30% said this took more time, 30% said it took less time and 40% said it made no difference.
• 60% said it was more convenient, 30 % the same and 10% more inconvenient than collecting paper submissions.
• 70% reported that it was easy to retrieve the work, 20% reported that it made no difference and 10% that it was more difficult.
• Asked if they would like to use electronic submission again 100% of the academic staff agreed that they would like to do so.

References

Please visit the Reference page for all e-Submission references.