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Assessment and academic misconduct: an introduction (Science)

Target audience

Research postgraduate students teaching this semester. Contract research staff teaching for the first time in the UK may attend these OR relevant Academic Staff Development Programme workshops. New academic staff are encouraged to attend.

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), 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.

Postgraduate and other part-time tutors and demonstrators play a crucial role in the support of student learning, which often involves marking student work. Assessment should always be rigorous, transparent, and fair; therefore the University requires that all such teachers receive instruction in the principles and methods of assessment and effective feedback.

This interactive in-person workshop will focus on the purpose and methods of assessment, including an introduction to the University's 20 Point Reporting Scale. We will explore various principles of assessment (e.g. reliability and validity), the various tensions inherent in marking and the concept of effective feedback. There will also be a brief introduction to the University's Academic Misconduct policy and methods for detecting plagiarism.

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

• Assessment & Academic Misconduct: an introduction workshop (either cross-Faculty or Faculty-specific)
• Student Services: supporting students and teachers workshop
• Online course Diversity in the Workplace

These courses are repeated before every semester. We strongly recommend that participants attend just before the semester in which they will be teaching.

What previous participants have said about this course:

• "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."

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

Venue

Old Union Diner, Butts Wynd

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Course provider

IELLI
Email: ielli@st-andrews.ac.uk