ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY

SENATE

ANNUAL MONITORING OF DELIVERY IN 2014/15

Guidance for Associate Colleges on Completing the Annual Monitoring Report Template

This guidance is intended to assist you in your consideration of the quantitative and qualitative information supplied in support of annual monitoring and in your completion of the report template. In addition to this guidance we will be supplying a report that was considered to be a positive example from recent years.

In completing your report and action plan you should keep in mind the key themes of annual monitoring: academic standards, student performance, the student experience and the sharing of good practice. You should ensure that your commentary and your action plan address these key themes and that your actions are geared towards enhancing the achievement and experience of your students. Specifically, we would ask that you give serious thought to measures/actions to increase the number of students achieving degrees in the higher classifications (First and Upper Second).

This report is designed to cover the entirety of your Anglia Ruskin provision and should be written as an institutional-level overview, drawing together the data and information from course-level analysis. This should also be reflected in the Action Plan with cross-college strategic actions.

Front Page

In the relevant sections:

Please insert the name of the Associate College

Please indicate the name of the person who has completed the report.

Please also list all of the Anglia Ruskin courses which are delivered at your institution.

Individual Sections

  1. Commentary on Last Year’s Action Plan (for delivery in 2013/14)

The report and action plan that you provided in the previous year will be enclosed with the data. You should provide broad commentary on the impact of the actions, with reference to supporting data where relevant. More specifically this section should comment on actions which have not been completed and those, if any, which will be carried forward.

  1. Updated version of Last Year’s Action Plan (from delivery in 2013/14)

As indicated above, please provide an updated version of last year’s Action Plan which summarises the commentary (provided in section 1 above) on the progress made against each actionand clearly identifies where actions are to be carried forward into this year’s Action Plan.

  1. Enhancements to Student Achievement and/or Experience

This section allows you to articulate any significant developments that have demonstrably enhanced student achievement or the student experience. These enhancements should be linked to planned activities or support rather than simply referring to general areas of improvement. This section is broad and may include commendable progress in specific areas. It is good practice to explain how these achievements have contributed towards enhancing the student experience.

Previous examples include:

  • The development of high quality resources to support teaching
  • Outstanding examples of student achievement (e.g. external prizes, awards)
  • Positive outcomes in external surveys or visits
  • Successful student support and personal tutoring systems that are praised by students

This section should also include features of good practice which should conform to the Anglia Ruskin definition (provided below). Previous examples of features of good practice include:

  • The provision of optional skills sessions designed to help students develop their presentation skills
  • Inclusion of portfolio development during modules to improve attendance, engagement and student performance.
  • Use of peer assessment to increase cohort understanding of the application of learning outcomes in summative assessment

*Anglia Ruskin defines good practice as a method, strategy, system, procedure or process which has, over an appropriate period of time, resulted in improved academic standards, an enhanced quality of education and/or an improved level of service to stakeholders (e.g. students, staff, external examiners, collaborative partners, employers) and which can, when appropriately adapted, be implemented in other areas of the institution. Such good practice can be evidenced in a variety of ways. Examples include student performance, statistical information, feedback from stakeholders (e.g. via questionnaires, Course Management Committee meetings, Employer Liaison Panel meetings etc)

  1. Formal Engagement with Anglia Ruskin

This section asks you to reflect on the key themes arising from any formal engagements with Anglia Ruskin processes during the previous academic year. Most notable examples may include Institutional Approval or Review and course/franchise approval events. You should provide commentary on the experience of these processes and progress made against any conditions or recommendations arising from them.

It is recommended that any on-going actions in response to these processes are included in your annual monitoring action plan for the coming year.

  1. Module Performance Statistics

The module performance statistics in the supplied data provide a variety of information on individual modules and chiefly:

  • Module data presented as a total for 2014/15 (i.e. where a module is delivered in different semesters, these are combined to produce one total score for the module)
  • Module performance data over three years (2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15) presented by individual occurrence (i.e. separate entries for each semester in which it is delivered).
  • Module data presented by course (i.e. where a module is being taken by students from more than one course, the module data is presented as a separate entry for each course and includes only the students registered for that course)

On each of these data sheets the following data is displayed:

  • Module Code and Module Name
  • Number of students
  • First and Second attempt pass rates for each module
  • Average mark for the module
  • The Module Evaluation score (MES)

Your summary should focus mainly on the key themes arising from the data and should referto any relevant actions from the previous year’s action plan in relation to either themes or specific modules.

Key themes might include:

  • Noticeably strong or weak performance from particular cohorts of students
  • Noticeable differences in performance on a particular module from students on different courses
  • Demonstrable strength or weakness in particular assessment methods e.g. written examination
  • Marked variance in performance across semesters
  • Noticeable differences or patterns in mean marks
  • Marked levels of non-submission on particular modules/cohorts
  • Differences in performance from the previous year (and how these might relate to any actions from the previous year)
  • Commentary on the range of Module Evaluation scores

In addition to key themes you should specifically comment on:

  • Any modules with a first or second attempt pass rate of 75% or below
  • Any module with a mean mark of 50% or below
  • Any module that was the subject of a specific action in the previous year’s Action Plan
  • Any module with a module evaluation score of 6.5 or below

Where issues have been identified and have impacted on student performance, these should be accompanied by clear actions. For instance, it is essential that serious levels of non-submission or very high failure rates on specific modules or forms of assessment (e.g. written examinations) are addressed with specific actions.

You are strongly encouraged to make specific reference to the relevant parts of the data in your summary and comments. To aid the reader it has been good practice in the past to paste relevant sections of the data into the relevant section of the template.

  1. Course Performance Statistics

The data set provides key information by course over a number of spreadsheets. These are:

  • Status by enrolment year (showing student numbers by course and year of enrolment, identifying those that are current, dormant, intermitting or withdrawn). This data supports commentary on course recruitment and retention.
  • Current Student Numbers 2014/15- this shows the number of current students by course during the academic year 2014/15.
  • Grades Awarded- this shows the number and percentage of students, by course, achieving awards in the identified classification bands. This data set supports analysis and commentary on the proportion of students achieving awards in the higher classification bands.
  • Good Honours degrees- this shows the number of students achieving an honours degree (expressed as ‘Count’) and the percentage of those that are achieving degree classifications of First and Upper Second for undergraduate degrees.
  • Intended Awards Achieved- this shows the number and percentage of students that are achieving the award for which they are registered.
  • National Student Survey results (where appropriate)

In this section you should comment specifically on the following issues:

  • Trends in recruitment for each course (the number of students registered)
  • Trends in course retention and completion rates
  • Trends in award classification outcomes (the number of students achieving good honours degrees)
  • Trends in the number of students achieving their intended awards

You should focus on the key themes arising from the data and how they relate to previous or future actions. Specific comment should be made on any noticeably high or low recruiting courses and any courses where there are noticeable problems with retention. Any issues with regard to retention should be thoroughly investigated and actioned and you should give specific thought to measures/actions to improve any areas of poor course performance (e.g. high withdrawal and discontinuation rates, low retention, high rates of non-submission)

You are also asked to comment on trends in award classifications. Specifically, you should give thought to measures/actions designed to increase the number of students achieving degrees in the higher classification bands (First and Upper Second at undergraduate level, Merit and Distinction for Master’s degrees). Such measures may reveal themselves in other sections of the report but should be clearly linked to student achievement within the Action Plan.

Any specific issues identified should be accompanied by clear actions.

  1. Use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

This section should reflect on your use of the VLE. Key themes may be around student and staff access and usage, and the receipt of information from Anglia Ruskin, but you should also highlight any instances of good or innovative practice in the use of the VLE and how it may have contributed towards enhancing the student experience.

For Associate Colleges hosting material on their own VLE this section is still relevant.

  1. Student Feedback on Courses and Modules

The data provides a Module Evaluation score for each module where available. These scores arise from the Anglia Ruskin Module Evaluation Survey.

It is good practice to provide commentary on other forms of student feedback. If you run your own internal module evaluation system, please discuss it here and supply any relevant data.

Other relevant forms of student evaluation might include:

  • National Student Survey
  • Surveys run by your institution
  • Matters raised by students at committee meetings or through other formal processes

The commentary should focus on key themes that are directly related to curriculum management and delivery and the student experience. More general issues (e.g. car parking!) do not require discussion. Where appropriate, the commentary should be accompanied by clear actions.

  1. External Examiner Reports

The data pack will include reports from external examiners at Anglia Ruskin who have considered modules that contribute towards your courses. Although in the majority of cases these reports will not refer explicitly to individual Associate Colleges, you should provide commentary on any issues that are identified in relation to courses or modules that you deliver.

  1. Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRB) and other external reports

The principal aim of this section is to capture and summarise all forms of external evaluation of our academic activity.

External reports can take many forms andmay include the following:

  • Quality Inspections (e.g. QAA, IQER, REO)
  • National/Governmental agencies (e.g. CPE,MQA, ACTT, TEC)

Please provide a summary of any external visits or reviews that have taken place in the previous year or any that have required follow up work in the previous year.

Where a summary is provided of external visits, please provide appropriate reference to the reports and/or outcomes of these visits, attaching reports where appropriate, and summarising any actions identified in response.

  1. CMC Minutes

The data pack will include the minutes from your Course Management Committee meetings in the previous year where these have been provided to us. You should provide a commentary which summarises any key themes emerging from these meetings, particularly where issues have also arisen in previous years. Where relevant, any on-going actions from CMC meetings can be included in the annual monitoring action plan particularly where these actions relate to issues emerging elsewhere in the report.

  1. Research, Scholarly Activity, Staff Development and Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Please provide a summary of any research or scholarly activity undertaken by staff in the previous year that has or will have an impact on the student experience.

Scholarly activity might include the following:

  • Consultation work in relevant industries
  • Contributions to, or hosting of, conferences or events in relevant academic disciplines
  • Engagement with professional bodies or groups

In this section you should also provide summary of staff development activity, including activities which involved Anglia Ruskin staff. You may also refer to any relevant CPD activities undertaken by staff.

In all cases please outline where and how this activity has contributed towards curriculum delivery and the student experience.

  1. Action Plan For Implementation in 2015/16

The report ends with a template for your new action plan for implementation in 2015/16.

This Action Plan should incorporate every action proposed or referred to in each of the preceding individual sections of the report, including any actions which are being carried forward from the previous year’s action plan. In some cases it may be wise to draw together actions from different sections of the report where these are linked to a common theme. In this case the actions can be grouped together under the broader ‘target/goal’ in the template for the Action Plan.

As mentioned above, when drafting your action plan it is essential to keep in mind how each individual action contributes towards enhancing student performance and achievement, and/or the student experience.

The Action Plan should attempt to focus on key actions that apply to the entirety of provision and are monitored at institutional level. Thought should also be given to the identity of those responsible for undertaking and monitoring the actions avoiding a situation where almost all actions are the responsibility of one individual.

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