Week Five 22 October 2019

Heads Up for Week Five 

It's Week 5 and we are mid semester already. Here’s this week’s quick round up of information that might be useful  – short points with links to detail where possible. Please use comments section at the end if you want to follow up.

Preparing for Uploading Marks in the New Student Records System

The first set of marks upload using the new system will be for Module Leaders with PG mark entry in November, followed by UG mark entry beginning in January 2020 (which is a lot closer than you think). Training and support is two-fold.

First, there is a Moodle-based online mark entry tutorial with guidance on how to complete mark entry in the new system.

How to start the tutorial

1. Go to the SRS Moodle course
2. Log in to Moodle when prompted using your usual Brookes login details.
3. Select 'Enrol'.
4. Select the ‘Mark Entry’ tab where you’ll find a self-guided tutorial (PDF) along with an instructional video. 
5. Use the link to the test area to complete the course activities.
6. Once complete, check the ‘Your progress’ box to indicate you have completed the tutorial and activities.

Second there is also F2F guided-practice sessions especially for staff involved in the first round of mark entry. Staff can book onto these, the details are below.

Sessions will run from the end of October to mid-November and are intended as an optional follow-on activity once you’ve completed the online training. During the session staff can work their way through the tutorial guide and use the test Banner environment to practice. To request a place on one of these guided-practice sessions, click on the: SRS training schedule and select a date.

Access Requests - If you are not a module leader but you need access to mark entry to do your job, or if you are a module leader and when you try to access the Student Information system (Banner) you get a ‘Not authorised message’ you will need to make a request for access to Banner Gradebook  using the Oxford Brookes Service Now Access Request page: https://service.brookes.ac.uk/brookes/make-request.do (requests must be approved by a line manager, please include their full name in the request). Contact the SRS Training team at srstraining@brookes.ac.uk if you have any questions.

What is Good Practice in Completing a Module Evaluation Report

The Faculty Quality Team are trying to attend Subject Committee Meetings (SCMs) across the Faculty this semester. One of the really important functions of SCMs is to review the previous semester's modules via the module reports which include results of the Moodle module evaluation that students complete. One of the Faculty actions for this year is to: 

• try and improve the response rate to the evaluation (aiming for 50% of students to complete each of their evaluations) and 
• the quality of the Module Report that goes to the SCM. 

This is an important part of acting of student feedback and to close the loop in showing students that we do value their feedback, Section 5 of the Module Reports is published on the Faculty Student Voice googlesite. This is the section that states the Module Leader's response to the feedback and any action taken.

This completed Module Report is annotated to show what good practice looks like in completing a Module (Evaluation) Report. Any reflections welcome, please use the comment box below.

Knowing the Market for Your Programme - Tools you can use

The University's Market Insight Team have developed a 'Know Your Market' tool with both UG and PG versions. 

You can use this tool to:

- give context to Brookes' recruitment trends
- help to prioritise marketing activities
- give context to programme and portfolio planning
- give context to planning student numbers
- generally 'knowing your market'

The tool shows basic market trends in UG and most PG subjects in which Brookes currently operates, including A level entries, UCAS applications and acceptances, and employment trends.
To access the tool click HERE. This takes you to a spreadsheet on a Google drive, accessible to Brookes users. You can treat this as a website; just bookmark to find the page again.
Be aware in this shared tool that other colleagues may be using the files and filters at the same time as you.

The tabs available in the tool are:

A level dashboard	trends in A level entries
UG recruitment dashboard	basic market trends for Undergraduate subjects in which Brookes currently operates
UG recruitment dashboard by domicile	as above, split by UK, EU, non-EU
PG recruitment dashboard	basic market trends for PGT subjects in which Brookes currently operates
PG recruitment dashboard by domicile	as above, by UK, EU, non-EU
Employment dashboard	UK employment trends

Please do not share the application, acceptance, and enrolment data outside Oxford Brookes University.   

Being involved in Validation Panels and Review Events

A great way to refresh your view of teaching and learning is to take part as a Panel member or Chair of a validation event for a new programme or review event. It can be really interesting to discuss teaching, assessment and other issues with a programme team and other Panel members from different subjects/disciplines, and to see how the University processes work with respect to getting new programmes off the ground, refreshed in a revalidation or reviewed. It's also interesting just to meet other staff from across the Uni (and partner colleges) and share experiences.

If you're interested, it really helps to take part in the basic training which will run again in January in time for all the validation events and reviews that tend to happen in the second half of the year.

Sign up for the training here


That's all for this week. Take care.