The University of Edinburgh
College of Humanities and Social Science
Undergraduate Learning & Teaching Committee
10 March 2011
Paper 10/11 4 B
For discussion
Disclosable
Student Access to past essays
As part of the CUGLAT discussion on assessment and feedback, the Committee is
invited to discuss the following paper prepared by the Director of Undergraduate
Teaching for Politics and International Relations.
Lynn Hyams
March 2011
Student access to past essays
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Student feedback is currently a vital topic in the University. In the course of
discussions with our students in Politics and International Relations (PIR), they
have requested being able to look at previous students' essays, both those with
good AND bad grades, in order to get a greater sense of what is required from
them, the marking criteria and the feedback mechanisms and there have been
requests from students for course convenors to put a sample of such essays on
course WebCT pages.
In principle, such a practice might be a maximally efficient way of demystifying
our assessment practices, given that all our essays and feedback forms have
electronic copies and are now easy for course convenors/secretaries to post on
WebCT.
A few PIR course convenors already post past essays on WebCT, making sure
that the essays are completely anonymised with exam numbers removed, and
that the essay questions do not duplicate current ones. Some supply the
feedback forms, some just the essays and a mark. We also do this with
dissertations. Similarly, such a procedure might be used for exam revision,
provided again that past exams are completely anonymous and do not duplicate
current exam questions (in this case photocopies or scanned copies would be
needed).
PIR is considering spreading the practice more widely, and it might also be
considered more widely in College (if it is not done so already).
However, the practice does raise a number of issues of privacy and confidentiality
that would need to be considered before expanding it:
o Students with good grades raise no objections to having their essays used in
such a way, but students with worse grades conceivably might regard this as
breaching their privacy. This is despite students’ claim that being able to see
what is classed as a bad essay is as illuminating as seeing a good one.
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Therefore, do we need to request the students' permission to use their work,
even if they are fully anonymised and even if they have left the university,
often some time ago?
If we need to request students’ permission, we’d need to do so in advance,
since tracking down past students is laborious and sometimes not even
possible.
This raises the broader question of who 'owns' such essays or exams - the
students or the University?
Are there possible other problems with presenting such essays/exams
alongside the feedback forms in order to give students a more holistic view of
an assignment and how it is marked?
My own view (shared by many of my colleagues) is that, provided the essays/exams are
thoroughly anonymised, with exam numbers removed entirely, then the advantages
outweigh the disadvantages. If we got students to sign a consent form when submitting
their essay allowing their work to be used for such a purpose, then this might be both
polite and practical and obviate any objections. But such extra forms should be
introduced only if they are considered absolutely necessary.
Luke March
Director of Undergraduate Teaching
Politics and IR
17 January 2010