Introducing the Digital Assessment Team

In light of UCL’s commitment to a ‘digital first’ approach to assessment, a Digital Assessment Advisory team was established in September 2021 to support and implement online assessments at UCL. The team is currently made up of three Digital Assessment Advisors (DAAs) working within nominated Faculties, two Learning Technologists, and the Head of Digital Assessment.

	Marieke Guy Head of Digital Assessment	Marieke joined UCL in September 2021 as a Digital Assessment Advisor, encouraging the adoption of digital assessment at UCL including the use of a new assessment platform, AssessmentUCL. She is responsible for supporting assessment in the Population Health Sciences, Life Sciences and Mathematical & Physical Sciences faculties. Marieke has worked in digital education for over 20 years. She was previously the Learning Technologies Production Manager at the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) and prior to that the Digital Learning Manager at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU). She spent many years as a researcher into digital information at the University of Bath and worked at the Quality Assurance Agency as a data analyst. Her areas of interest include data, open education and pedagogy, cultural change and learning technology. She holds a Senior CMALT and Senior HEA fellowship.
	Eliot Hoving Digital Assessment Advisor	Eliot joined the Digital Education Services team in October 2018. He supports a range of learning technologies with a focus on e-assessment including digital marking workflows, digital rubrics, peer review, and Turnitin. He enjoys working with teachers to utilise technologies for creating engaging learning experiences, facilitating dialogue towards collective learning, and sparking self and peer reflection.
	Isobel Bowditch Digital Assessment Advisor	Isobel joined UCL Digital Education as a Digital Assessment Advisor in September 2021. She supports the use of digital assessment methods within the School of Life and Medical Science and Engineering Sciences. Before coming to UCL, Isobel worked in Academic Development at London South Bank University (LSBU) and Goldsmiths, roles which included supporting the adoption of digitally enhanced teaching and learning practices, curriculum design – in particular, the design of engaging, meaningful assessment and feedback methods – and leading on the Advance HE CPD route to HEA Fellowship. She also worked in a multi-faceted, fractional role at IoE as learning technology support/lecturer and programme administrator on a fully online distance learning MA Applied Educational Leadership and Management from its inception (2002). Isobel completed her PhD in Fine Art (practice and theory) from University of the Arts where she was Associate Lecturer for 15 years (undergraduate and postgraduate). She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA and qualified coach.
	Lene Marie Kjems Digital Assessment Advisor	Lene Marie joined UCL as a Digital Assessment Advisor in September 2021. She works with the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and Law. Before coming to UCL, Lene Marie was an Elearning Advisor at the University of Copenhagen, engaged in curriculum design using the UCL ABC approach, staff training, and production of online teaching materials like online courses, ebooks, illustrations, and video lectures. Before working in HE, Lene Marie was a teacher of Danish as a Second Language for eight years.
	John Spittles Senior Learning Technologist	John works with the Digital Assessment team as a Learning Technologist, encouraging the adoption of digital assessment across UCL. Prior to joining the team in September 2021, John worked for several years at UCL Eastman Dental Institute, supporting the delivery of teaching and assessment across face-to-face and distance learning programmes.
	Nadia Hussain Learning Technologist	Nadia joined UCL Digital Assessment team as a Learning Technologist in September 2022. She supports wider assessments with a focus on digital product areas such as Moodle VLE, Turnitin, Wiseflow etc. Before coming to UCL, Nadia held a similar post at Imperial College London involved in administrating and testing online learning platforms as well as providing training to academics in the use of digital learning technologies. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Brunel University.

Supporting UCL

Digital methods of assessment and feedback offer many pedagogical and operational benefits. The Digital Assessment Advisors at UCL are here to help staff get the best out of digital assessment methods, be they getting started with digital assessment or looking to develop existing practice.

Areas that as a team we advise on include assessment design, academic integrity, effective feedback and marking processes – as well as advising on the most appropriate digital platforms and tools. We also work closely with Faculty staff, Programme teams and Arena colleagues, to design and deliver timely and relevant assessment-related initiatives and workshops.

AssessmentUCL

We have particular expertise in the AssessmentUCL platform, for which we provide training and guidance for. Building on our work with Faculties to understand the needs of different departments and programmes, we advise on the capabilities of the AssessmentUCL to identify solutions, as well as feedback departmental requirements to facilitate the ongoing development of the platform. We have extensive guidance on our AssessmentUCL Resource Centre. If staff are planning to deliver departmental assessments on AssessmentUCL in 2022-23 they can view our recommendations and next steps for departments to help them get started with your assessments as well as understand any practices around assessments you would like to advance.

Other areas of interest

The team is also interested in other areas related to assessment and feedback including:

Academic integrity
Authentic assessments
Feedback
Formative assessment
Technology use in assessment

We are using this blog as a team to explore ideas and concepts related to assessment and feedback.