Module Specification Guidance / Regulation
1. Module Code Number - Please remember that the first two digits are the subject
area identifier, the third digit the level (i.e. 0 to 5). If a module is taught jointly between
more than one School, then the Schools should agree whose identifier appears on the
module. The major subject contribution should be the guide. If a module code needs to
be changed, a new module record must be created. Module codes should not be reused.
2. Title of Module - Titles should be short, a fair reflection of the subject material
contained in the syllabus, and interesting.
3. Hesa Subject Area of Study – As you may or may not already be aware, PMID
compiles an annual student data return for the Higher Education Statistics Agency. As
part of this process, we have to return 'subject' data for all modules taken by our
students. From 09/10, HESA indicated that they would be making more detailed use of
this data than they have done previously in particular, it will be used to identify
'strategically important and vulnerable subjects' which may lead to additional funding for
certain subjects in future. We therefore need to ensure that module subject data is
coded in as much detail as possible. As a result, we now need to seek help from Schools
and Departments to ensure that this is done accurately as we do not have the subject
knowledge required to allocate the more detailed codes. You’ll find a list of codes as a
downloadable document in Saturn next to the dropdown box. If you have any questions
please contact please contact Corinne Leighton in PMID (ext 15755,
corinne.leighton@nottingham.ac.uk)
4. Number of credits - A single credit is notionally intended to represent 10 hours of
student input, whether in the form of teaching contact or private study. Credits indicate
a quantity of assessed learning and are gained by satisfying the Board of Examiners .It
should be noted that if, exceptionally, the assessment of a postgraduate module is not
carried out by the end of the semester in which the module is offered, the credits will not
in theory accrue to the student until assessment is completed in the following semester.
The minimum credit size of a module is 10 credits and all credit sizes must be divisible
by 5. Five credit and zero credit modules are only permitted in exceptional
circumstances.
5. Level - No precise definition of level can cover all modules and these guidelines are
not intended to be prescriptive. During the course of their degree studies, students are
expected to acquire both breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding along with
a range of fundamental skills. Course Directors and Tutors will have the overall balance
in mind when advising students on their module choices. All modules should be
academically challenging and therefore the content, mode of presentation and mode of
assessment should be matched to the student's development.
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Level 0 - Foundation year modules. These have a preparatory function, and are
designed to give students grounding in the subject, for example, when a student
lacks the relevant A-level.
Level 1 - Modules designed principally for 1st year (Qualifying stage) students.
These will normally develop basic knowledge and introduce fundamental concepts
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and techniques. Any pre-requisites will normally be expressed in terms of
relevant pre-University studies.
Level 2 - Modules designed principally for 2nd year students (Part I stage). These
will normally look to the next phase of a student's development. They may have
pre-requisites based on Level 1 modules, they may cover more advanced
concepts and may introduce different study skills.
Level 3 - Modules designed principally for 3rd year students (Part II). They will
normally build on previous studies, and pre-requisites will commonly be specified.
A wide range of study skills may be employed and developed, often with an
emphasis on student-centred and student-initiated learning.
Level 4 - Modules designed principally for 4th year students (Part III stage)
students and for students who already hold a first degree in an appropriate
subject at a suitable standard. These are principally designed to offer
extended/advanced study. They will normally have pre-requisites from lower level
modules.
All modules submitted for approval from 2005/06 onwards should have one of the levels
set out in the University of Nottingham Qualifications Framework.
6. Status - There are four types of status that can be applied to modules. For new
modules the status should be:
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Live - the module is to be offered in the specified session and semester. Existing
modules can be Live or have one of the following statuses applied:
To be withdrawn - the module is to be offered for the last time in the specified
session and semester. Module records with this status will automatically be
discontinued at the end of that session.
Suspended - the module is not offered in the specified session and semester, but
should be published in the Catalogue of Modules as it is anticipated that it will be
offered again.
Dormant - the module will not be offered again.
Roll forward only – you would use this status if you need the module to be set up
so it can be added to a course structure, but the module is not running this year.
For example, if you had a new undergraduate programme you might want to add
the modules for year 2 and year 3 so the course structure is correct, but the
modules are not running this year.
7. Semester in which module is taught and Assessment Period - Modules can
generally be offered in the Spring Semester, Autumn Semester or Full Year (year long).
A module can be offered in more than one of these periods, but one of them must be
indicated as the default.
Postgraduate modules can also be offered in the Summer term.
If a module does not fit the semester pattern, please use the Intensive Block option and
indicate in the Summary of Content in which term or other learning period the module
will be offered.
The module Assessment Period indicates the period at the end of which the formal
assessment of the module will be complete. It will usually be the equivalent of the
Semester, but exceptionally the Assessment Period may vary, e.g. an Autumn module
may have a formal examination in the Spring and therefore an Assessment Period of
"Assessed by the end of Spring Semester".
Year-long modules should include a formative assessment at the end of the Autumn
Semester.
Year-long modules should be implemented in a manner that does not interfere strongly
with student and staff mobility arranged on a semester-long basis. The form of
implementation will therefore depend on current and future plans for mobility and the
extent to which provision in a given subject area is organised on a year-long basis.
Schools with a presence in the UK and on international campuses should seek the
endorsement of all relevant campuses before embarking on any significant shift to yearlong modules that affects the provision on an international campus.
Measures that may be necessary in order to protect mobility include (where practicable):
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Using the formative assessment at the end of the Autumn Semester as summative
assessment for mobility students away from the University in the Spring Semester.
Alternatively, assessments other than formal written examinations may be used.
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Making provision for mobility students away in the Autumn Semester (and with the
appropriate grounding in the discipline) to undertake only the Spring Semester part
of the module and be awarded the resulting number of credits, and vice versa, for
students away in the Spring Semester undertaking only part of the module in the
Autumn Semester.
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Where students undertaking only the Spring Semester element of a year-long
module have minor gaps of knowledge in regard to the material covered in the
Autumn Semester, providing additional tuition for students in those minor elements.
8. Session availability - Is this module to be taught every session or, for example,
only in even numbered years, e.g. 2012/13?
9. Pre-requisites for admission to the module (if any) - Normally some prerequisites would be expected for level 2 ,3 and 4 modules and these should be entered
as module codes where they are required. There may be a small number of cases where,
for a variety of reasons, it is only possible to make an examination of the students
knowledge of a subject after they have completed the second module. See Assessment
Period above.
10. Co-requisites for the module (if any) - Please note: although there may be
specific instances where it makes good academic sense for a student to take two
modules together, the definition of a module is "a specified programme of study which is
self-contained".
11. Expected Number of Students taking module - Indicate the number of students
expected to take the module in the following academic session. If the expected number
of students is also a cap, please indicate this and explain the rationale for the cap (see
below).
12. Rationale for Cap - The rationale for this limitation must be explained.
13. Target Students - If a module is available to only a limited group of students (e.g.
Honours students) please specify.
14. Availability to Exchange Students - It will be assumed that a module is available
to exchange students, unless otherwise specified.
15. Summary of Content - Please use a style of presentation which makes your
information reasonably concise, informative and, above all, comprehensible, e.g. a
sentence such as "This module considers..." followed by bullet points of major topics
included.
16. Module Web Links - Indicate any learning environment web links, eg Blackboard.
17. Module Activities - It is important that you indicate in detail all the contact
activities for the module with a clear brief description of what is involved in the activity.
Indicate the type of activity, number per week (indicating in the information section
where an activity will not take place every week) and duration of the activity.
Where the module in question is the dissertation, please indicate the minimum
supervision arrangements. If appropriate, you should include a description of a range of
different teaching methods.
18. Assessment details - You must describe each assessment element in detail,
particularly the length of examinations and the word-length of any essay, project or
dissertation and if any element is non-compensatable. A non-compensatable module
element is one which must to be passed at the relevant level (40% for Honours degrees,
50% for Masters, PGCerts and PGDips). A student does have the opportunity to resit the
module element for progression purposes (unless they are in their final year of study as
an undergraduate), but they must achieve over the minimum level in one of their
attempts to be awarded the credits associated with that module.
The contribution of each assessment element to the overall module mark should be
clearly specified (e.g. one 1.5-hour examination (50%); one 1,500 word essay (50%)).
The assessment for a module should be no more than the minimum necessary to test its
learning outcomes.
Where it is felt necessary to have more than one component of assessment to cover all
the learning outcomes, assessing any given learning outcome more than once should be
avoided.
There should not be more than one timetabled examination for a module, except where
it is necessary to have both a written and a practical examination.
As part of the annual update and review of module specifications Schools should consider
whether the non-compensatable status of an assessment element continues to be
necessary for the achievement of either later study (i.e. a non-compensated pass acts as
a pre-requisite to a later compulsory module) or achievement of the programme learning
outcomes or accreditation requirements.
It is an established principle of the University, endorsed by University Executive Board
and Teaching and Learning Board, that when registered for a University of Nottingham
qualification all teaching and assessment must be in English. The only exception is where
the subject of study is a language or literature other than English. 19. Module
Convenor - There should be a named member of University staff to whom all queries
concerning the module can be addressed. This person will normally be a permanent
member of staff and accessible to students. Where a module is delivered in both the UK
and an international campus, a module contact should be appointed at the international
campus, who will:
- undertake the liaison with the UK-based module convenor
- have delegated responsibility for the modules delivery at the international campus
- be the contact person in regard to that module for students at the international campus
20. Administration Details i.e. School(s) offering the module and percentage
split - Please specify the School offering the module and contributing Schools. It is very
important that the School split accurately reflects the proportion of the module taught by
staff in each of the Schools, since these figures are used to calculate student load.
21. Aims - This should comprise a general statement explaining the purpose of the
module, how students will benefit from taking it and its role in the context of the subject
as a whole. It is expected that these will vary among the different modules contributing
towards the same programme. You could indicate the knowledge and subject-specific
skills which you expect a student to have on completion of the module eg. the aim of a
module might be to teach, for example, computer-aided design skills, which would be
different from the aim of a course which might be to teach general IT skills.
22. Learning Outcomes - These are outcomes which can come under one or more of
the following three sub-headings:
1. Intellectual skills - the abilities required to process the subject matter
2. Professional / practical skills - those skills specific to a particular subject area,
such as lab or field work, or the requirements of a specific professional or
regulatory body
3. Transferable / key skills - more specific skills which will commonly comprise
most of the following:
 Oral and Written Communication
 Team Work
 Self Management
 Problem Solving
 Critical Thinking
 Professionalism
 Information Technology Literacy
 Numeracy
Between 5 and 8 learning outcomes are reasonable for a module, dependent on the
credit size of the module (with 5 learning outcomes being the norm for a 10 credit
module).
23. Resources - This section is designed to ensure that the University has an adequate
range of resources and staff available to support the module. No additional resources
can be guaranteed, and offering units should normally expect to meet additional costs
from their budget allocations. If the number of students allowed to take a module is
constrained, then the cap should be indicated as well as the basis for selecting which
students will have priority registration onto the module (see Target Students)).
24. List which Schools and faculties have been consulted (and support the
proposal) - You should seek comments from all Schools whose students might be
interested in taking the proposed module and the School which is the discipline leader
for the subject, if this is not the proposing School. All Module Submission Documents
must be approved at Academic Board(s).
25. Approval by Head of School and other resource providers - Please note:
Submission of the module confirms that adequate consultation over resources has taken
place with the library, and any other relevant resource provider (e.g. Information
Services) and confirms that the appropriate consideration of this proposal has been
undertaken at School level.