Faculty of Humanities
eAssessment: Guidance for service interruption or downtime
Please note this advice and guidance is for summative assessment only, though you may find it
useful for formative assessment.
Existing University Documents
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University Assessment Framework:
http://www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/map/teachinglearningassessment/assessment/assessme
ntframework/
University guidance for online examinations: http://www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/elearning/eassessment/
Dealing with downtime
How do you know a system is down?
1. Check http://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/contacts/, there is a
service availability which will indicate if there is an issue with a
particular service 
2. For specific details of known downtime or technical issues see also
http://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/serviceinfo/. 
3. If it is a significant issue there will be updates via Staffnet
http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/, in the My Courses and My Organisations portlets of
My Manchester, and the StudentNews feed via Student My Manchester
4. After you have checked the above please contact your eLearning team. If it is a summative
assessment you can speak to a member of the eLearning team urgently. Call the IT Service
Desk on 65544, please give the Service Desk the usual information about you, your course
name and code, the problem and say it is urgent and they will put you through to a member
of the eLearning team.
General advice
1. There are ‘at risk’ periods. Submission of assessments within and around these periods
should be avoided
a. Every Sunday 2am-5am
b. Easter vacation
c. All of July
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Note: the specific dates impacted during these periods will be made available by the Online Learning
Strategy Group (via the Faculty eLearning team) as soon as possible, with the aim of dates being
available prior to the academic year.
2. Examinations are classed as ‘Key Business Dates’ and should be highlighted prior to the
start of semester to your eLearning team and the ICT Office via Teaching and Learning
committees and IS / Resource Committees.
3. Decide on your contingency plans as a programme or discipline team and communicate
these clearly to students. Please include contingency plans in all assignments and course
handbooks. If Blackboard is available use the Announcement tool, if not use School
specific communications including email, twitter or Facebook
4. Set submission times for mid day early on in the week (GMT only), this will give the
student time to contact you/eLearning and resubmit if there is a technical issue
5. Encourage students to NOT leave it to the last minute to submit assignments/complete
assessed work
6. If students contact you to say they are experiencing problems ask them to
a. Check the available service availability information
b. Retry, close the browser and try again with a different browser, for example
instead of Internet Explorer use Firefox.
c. If they are still experiencing problems contact the service desk at
www.manchester.ac.uk/servicedesk with full details of their course code and
name, the assignment name and type they are submitting, the browser they are
using, the tools they are using e.g. Turnitin (Tii) or Discussion Boards and the
problems they are experiencing
7. For Blackboard Assignments (file submission) and Tii submissions set up a School back up
email address which can be used as a contingency in the event of service disruption.
If the submission deadline is more than 1 day away
1. Ask the students to check the service availability
regularly, issues are usually addressed quickly and they
will be able to resubmit
2. If Blackboard is available (e.g. it is an intermittent issue,
it is an issue with a particular tool or with Tii) please
include this advice in a Blackboard announcement,
requesting students check the service availability
3. Remind students of the contingency plan you have
included in programme and course handbooks and how
you will be communicating with them to confirm what
they need to do.
At submission deadline
If there are problems a day before or on the date of
submission and you have verified these with your eLearning
team then a number of options are available to you
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Checklist for Student handbooks
consider including the following,
Which system is being using e.g. Tii or
Blackboard Assessments
General guidance such as don’t leave it
to the last minute, close the browser
and try again, try using a different
browser / computer
The web address to find out if a system
is down
Submit a problem to
www.manchester.ac.uk/servicedesk
What students should do if they
experience a problem i.e. check their
email / School twitter account /
Blackboard Announcements
What they need to do if a deadline is
approaching and there is a technical
problem i.e. submit via email
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
Ask students to keep trying and extend the deadline by 1 day to ensure all students have the
opportunity to take or submit the assessment. If Blackboard is available communicate with
students using Announcements or use the email function. If not contact your students from
outside Blackboard (useful for summative assessed work using Blackboard Tools such as
Assessment (quiz), Discussion Boards, Wiki’s, Blogs
Ask students to submit to the back up email address within 1 hour of the deadline and try to
submit again by the end of each day or as soon as the system becomes available (Blackboard
Assignment tool or Tii submissions)
Students are able to submit multiple times up to the deadline. Please ensure students are aware you
will take the final submission before the new deadline as the submission you will mark.
Specific information for Online exams
In line with guidance for online examinations (see http://www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/elearning/eassessment/) all online examinations must be able to revert to paper in the event of
technical difficulties.
All examinations during the examination period must go through the School Examinations Officer.
This will ensure that the necessary timetabling, IT and eLearning support is available. If online
examination is being considered outside the University examination period agreement of the
eLearning team must be sought to ensure that there is appropriate eLearning and IT Support
available on the day.
Status: Reviewed and Agreed
Date: 28 March 2013
Author: Cath Dyson, eLearning Manager
Available online at:
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/tandl/policyandprocedure/guidelinesandpolicydocuments
/
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