Delivering an end-to-end digital assessment delivery platform to support the UCL assessment journey.

On this page:
- Project Vision and Benefits
- How your Digital Advisor can help
- How to access support for AssessmentUCL
- Recordings of past Town Hall meetings
- FAQs
Project vision and benefits
Established in 2020, the Digital Assessment project aimed to provide a comprehensive digital platform for delivering online assessments. The project involved collaboration between Academic Services, Arena, Information Services, and academic and administrative members from various faculties.
Since then, AssessmentUCL using the Wiseflow platform, has successfully delivered over 2,000 assessments to more than 100,000 candidates and is now the primary platform for centrally-managed remote assessments and some departmental assessments. The platform offers several advantages, such as an improved student experience, diverse assessment options, and automatic uploading of student marks to Portico. However, there is still room for improvement, and we are actively working to enhance the user experience and identify areas for improvement in collaboration with stakeholders
UCL assessment journey
A map of the high-level journey for summative assessments was used as reference point for developing the digital assessment platform. The map sets out an objective definition of each stage of the assessment journey – from creation and design, through student participation and submission, to marking, moderation, external examining, providing feedback and recording and release of marks.
It includes practical pedagogic and administrative steps to highlight where policy, process and/or technology influence, disrupt or hinder the assessment journey and where significant variations in policy and practice exist.
Mapping the assessment process in this way highlights the co-dependencies at different stages of the journey that can make a difference to student and staff experience.
How your Digital Assesment Advisor can help
In recognition of the scale of change for faculties, we have appointed a Digital Assessment Team which includes dedicated Digital Assessment Advisors (DAA). DAAs work with departments and faculties to understand their assessment requirements, determine the most appropriate assessment type and advise on how to correctly set up assessments to get the most from AssessmentUCL platform and other UCL tools.
If you would like to find out more, please email the ISD.Digital Assessment Advisory inbox with your query. The Digital Assessment Team have a team blog to share updates and areas of work.
Support for AssessmentUCL
The Digital Assessment Team have outlined support processes for users of AssessmentUCL.
- Staff support during an AssessmentUCL assessment – this page includes a link to the staff query form which asks for additional information on the assessment and module affected. This information will help the Digital Assessment Team and the Digital Education Support Analysts (DESAs) diagnose and rectify issues more quickly.
- Student support during your assessment – this page includes a link to the Assessment Query Form, which is used by students for any technical failures that happen during an assessment.
Town halls and FAQs
Past Town Hall Meetings
- Brief update on the AssessmentUCL project, including next steps, February 2021
- Q&A on the 2021 exam process from submission of exams through to marking and moderation.
- Panel: Derfel Owen, Joanne Moles, Steve Rowett.
- Recording [UCL login required]
- Assessment Operating Model, 2021-22, October 2021
- About: An update and Q&A on the revised academic regulations for this year's assessment operating model.
- Panel: Joanne Moles (Head of Assessment Delivery & Platforms, Academic Services), Lizzie Vinton (Academic Regulations Manager, Academic Services), Prof Simon Walker (Academic Lead, Arena Centre) and Anisa Patel (Head of Digital Assessment, Digital Education).
- Recording [UCL login required]
- Introduction to the Digital Assessment Delivery Project, November 2021
- Recording from Friday 13 November 2021 (SLMS) [UCL login required]
- Recording from Monday 16 November 2021 (SLASH & IOE) [UCL login required]
- Recording from Tuesday 17 November 2021 (BEAMS) [UCL login required]
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- What is the governance structure for the project?
Digital Assessment Project Board
Accountable for the delivery of the project. Provide direction for the project and resolve issues and blockers.
Project Team
Carry out the day to day project task activities to deliver the project.
Digital Assessment Delivery working group
Feed into the future processes and implementation plans; support two-way communication between faculties and the project team; advise on training activities and plans; support go-live activities.
- What was the purpose of the Digital Assessment Project working group?
To inform our planning we have established an academic steering group drawn from our community of Exam Board Chairs, and a ‘Digital Assessment Delivery Working Group’ comprising professional services and academic staff from across UCL’s Faculties. These groups will help to review our plans and to continuously shape our future requirements for the platform.
Membership
- Academic representatives from each faculty
- Administrative representatives from each faculty
- Faculty learning technology leads
- Student union representatives
- Members of the project team
The purpose of the group is to:
- Input into the design of processes and policies;
- Support change activities to ensure faculty staff are ready for go-live;
- Cascade communications provided by the project team to faculties;
- Provide faculty feedback to the project team;
- Advise on and support engagement activities across faculties such as workshops, demos, lunch & learns and townhalls;
- Advise on training plans and activities;
- Support go-live activities;
- Become a super-user (potentially a subset of the group) and provide additional support and guidance to faculties.
- Who is on the Digital Assessment Delivery project group?
Name
School
Faculty
Prof Aeli Roberts
BEAMS
Bartlett
Jenny Post
BEAMS
Bartlett
Samantha Ahern
BEAMS
Bartlett
Dean Barratt
BEAMS
Engineering
Anna Trostnikova
BEAMS
Engineering
Marrietta Bamidi
BEAMS
Engineering
Dr Richard Osborne
BEAMS
MAPS
Jadranka Butorac
BEAMS
MAPS
Sukh Thiara
BEAMS
MAPS
Dr Russell Evans
BEAMS
MAPS
Dr Simon Harden
BEAMS
MAPS
Tim Neumann
IOE
IOE & Laws
Noreen Kassem
IOE
IOE
Jo Pearce
IOE
IOE
Prof Norbert Pachler
IOE
IOE
Dr Christine Hoffman
IOE
IOE CLIEE
Adam Salisbury
IOE
IOE CLIEE
Tony McNeill
SLASH
Arts and humanities
Abbi Shaw
SLASH
SELCS
Abbi Shaw
SLASH
Arts and Humanities
Michael Veale
SLASH
LAWS
Farah Rouba
SLASH
LAWS
Beth Beasant
SLASH
LAWS
Dr Silvia Dal Bianco
SLASH
SHS
Matteo Fumagalli
SLASH
SHS
Kitty Ho
SLASH
Arts and humanities
Fiona Harvey
SLASH
SHS
Jelena Calic
SLASH
SSEES
Tomas Cvrcek
SLASH
SELCS
Michael Wozniak
SLASH
SSEES
Tomas Cvrcek
SLASH
SSEES
Dr Steven Bloch
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Dr John Greenwood
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Hannah Spikesley
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Neil Roberts
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Jay Varia
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Donna Pile-Grant
SLMS
Faculty of Brain Sciences
Dr Alison Sturrock
SLMS
Faculty of Medical Sciences
Prof Nathan Davies
SLMS
Faculty of Medical Sciences
Tony Kiangebeni
SLMS
Faculty of Medical Sciences
Taylor Bennie
SLMS
Faculty of Medical Sciences
Hazel Smith
SLMS
Life Sciences
Kirsty Martin
SLMS
Life Sciences
Janice Kiugu
SLMS
Life Sciences
Jane Simmonds
SLMS
Population Health Sciences
Sean Gainford
SLMS
Population Health Sciences
Students' Union
Simon To
Leadership Development & Change Manager
Ayman Benmati
Education Officer
Jim Onyememnam
Postgraduate Students Officer
Yasmeen Daoud
Welfare and International Officer
Project Team
Derfel Owen (Chair)
OVPESA
Joanne Moles
Academic Services
Katherine Majid
Academic Services
Simon Walker
Arena
Steve Rowett
Digital Education
Tanya Tomic
ISD
Sabina Lamstaes
ISD
Shaun Kent
ISD
Karen Ofosu-Orchard
ISD
Alexis Nelson
ISD
- How is engagement with students taking place?
The Students' Union UCL (SU) are part of the Digital Assessment Working Group and will feed into all relevant areas of the project.
With support from SU, the project will also be holding student focus groups to capture wider input from the student body.
- What were the findings in the AssessmentUCL 2020-21 evaluation report?
To understand what has gone well during the Temporary Operating Model and any areas for improvement, the Digital Assessment Team, supported by a small team of student ChangeMakers, completed staff and student surveys and a series of interviews and focus groups.
The findings from the staff and student staff surveys reveal a set of positive and negative experiences. Staff found the platform was generally robust and delivered a largely consistent experience but comments focused on improvements they would like to see to platform settings or functionality.
Download the 2020-21 AssessmentUCL Evaluation report [Word]