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.
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2.
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
action and clearly identifies where actions are to be carried forward into this year’s Action
Plan.
3.
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:
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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:
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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)
4.
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
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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.
5.
Module Performance Statistics
The module performance statistics in the supplied data provide a variety of information on
individual modules and chiefly:
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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:
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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 refer
to any relevant actions from the previous year’s action plan in relation to either themes or
specific modules.
Key themes might include:
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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
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In addition to key themes you should specifically comment on:
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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 nonsubmission 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.
6.
Course Performance Statistics
The data set provides key information by course over a number of spreadsheets. These are:
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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:
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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
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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.
7.
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.
8.
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:
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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.
9.
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.
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10.
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 and may include the following:
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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.
11.
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.
12.
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:
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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.
13.
Action Plan For Implementation in 2015/16
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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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