< Back to search results

Assessment and academic misconduct: an introduction (cross-faculty)

Target audience

All new teaching staff from any discipline. Contract research staff teaching for the first time in the UK may attend these OR relevant Academic Staff Development Programme workshops (https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/osds/my-development/academic-teaching-staff/asdp/).

Course pre-work

There are 4 compulsory courses that new postgraduate teachers must complete before they are allowed to begin teaching. Three of these are synchronous ("live") workshops (via Teams or in-person); the fourth is an asynchronous, online course which you complete in your own time. 1) Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction (online and in-person options) 2) Assessment and academic misconduct: an introduction (online and in-person options) 3) Student Services: supporting students and teachers (online and in-person options) 4) Diversity in the Workplace (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/training/) - (online self-study)

Course mapped to

Vitae's Researcher Development Framework domains: B3 (Professional and career development), C1 (Professional conduct), D1 (Working with others), D3 (Engagement and impact)

Follow on course

"Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction" and "Student Services: support for students and teachers" and "Diversity in the Workplace"

Course information

IMPORTANT (for PGRs): If you have not already done so, please register on the Essential courses for postgraduates who teach - PDMS - University of St Andrews (st-andrews.ac.uk) to book and track your completion status. Doing this will also automatically give your School access to view your completion status. 

This live workshop will take place in Microsoft Teams. If you’d like a bit more information on how to use Teams, have a look at this Introduction to Teams video. We recommend that you download the Microsoft Teams app to whatever device you are using to get the best functionality and user experience, and sign in to Teams before you click the event link.

Postgraduate and other part-time tutors and demonstrators play a crucial role in the support of student learning at St Andrews, which often involves marking undergraduate student work (eg essays, lab reports, problem sets). Assessment should always be rigorous, transparent, and fair; therefore the University requires that all such markers receive instruction in the principles and methods of assessment and effective feedback.

This interactive workshop will focus on the purpose and methods of assessment, including an introduction to the University's 20 Point Reporting Scale. We will explore some principles of assessment (e.g. reliability and validity) and effective feedback. There will also be a brief introduction to the University's Academic Misconduct policy and methods for detecting plagiarism and other forms of misconduct.

What previous participants have said about this workshop:

• "It provided a valuable information about the process of assessing, the biases implied and how to minimize them."
• "I would have loved to attend this course when I started teaching as a tutor 20 years ago. If you are not familiar with the British system, this course explain very clearly information that sometimes is taken for granted that every body is familiar with (grading, for example)."
• "This event gave a comprehensive and interesting introduction to assessment at the University of St Andrews that is useful both for new markers and for more experienced markers looking to consolidate their skills."
• "All Schools should make sure everybody take this course before starting to teach. I will let know new appointments about it."
• "I finally understand the 20-point reporting scale! The academic misconduct exercise was also very informative."

You must also complete the following if you are a postgraduate teacher:

• Teaching at St Andrews: an introduction workshop (either cross-Faculty or Faculty-specific)
• Student Services: supporting students and teachers workshop
• Online course Diverity in the Workplace

These workshops are not assessed or accredited, but are compulsory for any postgraduate who wishes to do any form of teaching at St Andrews.

These workshops are repeated before the start of each semester. We strongly recommend that participants attend just before the semester in which they will be teaching.

Aims and objectives

By the end of this workshop you should be able to:

• Define the different modes of assessment
• Explain the importance of using shared, transparent criteria in assessment
• List some key principles of giving good feedback
• Identify the various categories of academic misconduct as defined by the University's policy
• Identify warning indicators of plagiarism.

Tutors

Dr Paula Villegas Verdu

Course provider

CEED
Email: ceed@st-andrews.ac.uk