Mark entry improvement initiatives to improve student and staff experience

Timely and accurate Mark Entry and Results Release administration processes are fundamental for Exam Boards to run and underpin our students’ progression and award outcomes. We are aware that these processes also carry huge administrative burden at key points in the year.  

Following our cross-faculty and department workshops at the end of last year, we developed an improvement plan incorporating shorter term (this academic year) and longer term (next academic year and beyond) changes.

As part of this, a number of enhancements will go-live in Portico this week including a new mark entry dashboard, improved mark entry view and new mark entry report functionality.

Find out about these, and our forthcoming new assessment grades and enhanced EC / DAP / SORA report below.  

Additionally, we have renamed the Mark Exchange Deadline: it will now be known as the Mark Entry Deadline to make the importance and purpose of this deadline clearer to all stakeholders. We have created a document – the importance of the Mark Entry Deadline - to emphasise the importance of the Mark Entry Deadline and illustrate the steps which must take place following this deadline in order for Exam Boards to run. Please feel free to share this with colleagues and use in your communications.

Going live this week:

• New mark entry dashboard:
  • Additional module search criteria to more easily refine the modules displayed on your dashboard.
  • New, dynamic fields to easily track the status of mark entry at module and component level.
  • Mark entry dashboard guidance
• Mark entry view improvements:
  • New flag where a student has an EC or DAP for an assessment along with key information about mitigation and date.
  • Now showing 999 students per page giving users a significant “click saving”!
  • Mark entry view guidance
• Mark entry report:
  • Mark entry reports now available at “all module” level, individual module level and individual assessment component level.
  • Enhanced search functionality including additional search criteria and auto populated list of Module Code(s) options.
  • Ability to select which columns are shown on the mark entry report (in addition to the core set of mandatory columns).
  • Removal of the # prefix from the Candidate ID column to make the V LOOKUP processes easier.
  • Mark entry report guidance

Coming soon (early April)

• New assessment grade codes
  • We have added three new assessment grade codes for deferral with tuition, and scenarios where marks are expected but not yet available due to pending EC outcome or pending marking. Training and guidance will be provided.  

• Enhanced EC / DAP / SORA report
  • We will be launching a new report that enables you to look for students with ECs / DAPs / SORAs in one place. For SORAs, the initial version will flag where there is a student with a SORA only. As a future enhancement, in line with the improvements we are making as part of the Beyond the SoRA programme, there will be additional information available.
• New bite sized Mark Entry guidance videos
  • Covering key mark entry topics including new assessment grade codes and managing EC decisions. These videos will be added to our Mark Entry Guidance pages.

Longer term

• Iterative results release on Portico from 25/26

For the next academic year, we will introduce termly results release on Portico. Departments will therefore be asked to work towards new Mark Entry Deadlines: Mark Entry Deadline – Term 1 (date to be agreed with faculty consultation) and Mark Entry Deadline – Term 2 (date to be agreed with faculty consultation). We are also considering the changes that can be made for assessments taking place in term 3. We will communicate these dates once available. We will also be working with Education Services and relevant policy stakeholders to consider policy changes required to support this operational change.

Contact details for further information: currentstudent@ucl.ac.uk