Blog
Submitting work from the comfort of your PC...
The Idea
I went to a presentation today looking at how we might enable you to submit assessed work (essays, coursework etc) online rather than having to come in, find the file, send it to the printer, wait in a queue, realise you don't have enough credit, put credit onto your printer system and repeat. At Northumbria University they're pilotting a scheme which would allow widescale and easy submission electronically through the vle: just log in and submit. Not only would it be easier and cheaper, but it might give you opportunities to get some better feedback and discuss it more thoroughly to make it more useful!
What I'm doing
The idea is really exciting, but there are some logistical worries around it, especially about how we preserve anonymity of marking: if you get on the wrong side of your marker you don't want to worry if they're going to mark you down (that's why we use exam numbers now...)
So I'm going to be looking at how the system they're using (and a few we have internally in the University) is working and I'll feed it back. If we can get round some of the logistical worries I'll be lobbying the University to find a way to resource implementing it, at least for some pilot projects this year.
What you can do
If you've used one of the current systems of online submission let us know how its gone! Also if this would be especially useful to you (or if you think it'd be a bad thing for any reason) get in touch with me at b.humphrys@yusu.org and I'll feed what you say into the deliberations.
