Formative Assessment
Undergraduate
Weekly formative homework exists for most courses. This is marked and returned the following week and discussed in class groups with their teachers. For some courses there are termly assignments to be completed. Formative homework is generally marked by the Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and Guest Teachers (GTs) who teach the course. Markers will provide individual feedback in the form of a grade (“very good”, “good”, “satisfactory”, or “poor”) and brief comments and qualitative feedback. Markers also look to identify common problems across the homework and address these in the next class where appropriate.
GTAs and Guest Teachers on our larger client courses ST102 and ST107 are supported by a Course Tutor and Teaching Coordinator, who provide guidance on assessment marking. Teachers also attend meetings with the Course Tutor at the beginning and end of the academic year to discuss teaching and assessment and are given a Teaching Essentials handbook which outlines how they should mark and provide feedback.
Taught Postgraduate
For most courses students are required to complete weekly exercises, which are marked and returned with feedback. Some courses also have termly assignments to be completed.
Summative Assessment
Undergraduate
The majority of summative assessment is based on exams in the main summer examination period. From 2015-16 there will be exams in week 0 of Lent Term for ST102 Elementary Statistical Theory, which will enable the course lecturer and class teachers to assess performance and advise students in order to help move their learning forwards for the rest of the year. A number of other half-unit courses will also run week 0 Lent Term examinations. A small number of courses have an element of assessed coursework. The class of degree attained is based on the assessment of a student’s work over all three years, with the emphasis on marks gained in the second and third years.
Taught Postgraduate
The majority of summative assessment is based on exams in the main summer examination period. A number of other half-unit courses will also run week 0 Lent Term examinations. For students following the research branch of either the MSc in Statistics or MSc in Statistics (Financial Statistics), there is a dissertation due in September. A topic is chosen and a supervisor assigned by week 8 of the Michaelmas term (around the last week in November). Students are encouraged to have regular meetings with their project supervisor during Lent term. During this term students write a detailed plan of work and gather all of the necessary resources (data; software; literature) they will need to complete their project successfully over the summer. Academics who take on supervision of MSc projects agree to make at least six hours contact time available (one hour, fortnightly). Supervisors who make extended trips abroad are always available via email or telephone (this may include Skype, where feasible).
Assessed projects and dissertations are entered on to plagiarism software programme, TurnitinUK and results made available to the course lecturer (projects) or supervisor (dissertations).
General Comments
GTAs and Guest Teachers attend meetings at the beginning and end of the academic year, which are run by the department and attended by the ST102/ST107 course lecturer and the part-time teaching coordinator. They receive the departmental Teaching Essentials handbook, which provides detailed, specific information for teachers in statistics. There is an additional meeting for all GTAs involved in associate examining for ST102 and ST107, which is led by the course lecturer. GTA/GTs are emailed information on TLC-run development events and encouraged to take up courses such as the PGCertHE at LSE.
All summatively assessed work is marked by a principle marker – normally a teacher on the course who marks the scripts. Then a 2nd marker will check the scripts or, in the case of larger courses, a sample of scripts for consistency. For ST102 and ST107 there is a team of markers (see below). Scripts are split among markers by question to ensure consistent marking (i.e. each marker marks the same question across all scripts). The course lecturer (the 2nd marker) checks a minimum of 15% of scripts in detail, in addition to any scripts at the pass/fail border. The Department also employs script ‘checkers’ to go through every script on ST102 and ST107 to ensure that every page has been fully seen and marked. The External Examiner reviews all marksheets, checks a sample of scripts for each paper and discusses results with the 1st examiner responsible for the course, taking into account assessment criteria and learning outcomes for the course.
Part-time teachers are used to mark ST102 and ST107 examination scripts. They attend an examination meeting in the Summer term to agree how the marking should be done. Markers each have set questions that they mark. The lecturer also provides support and guidance throughout the marking process. GTAs are also employed to mark some assessed coursework on larger courses, for which they are paid additionally to their standard teaching contract. GTAs will meet with the course lecturer to discuss what the work entails and are provided with written guidance and a marking scheme. Teachers can contact the Part-time Teaching Coordinator at any time for guidance and advice. The coordinator is responsible for assessing teaching survey results and suggesting areas for development and progress.