The University of Glasgow is piloting two digital assessment platforms during the academic year 2024/2025 with colleagues in all four colleges. A Digital Assessment Platform is software that allows you to plan, design, deliver and grade assessments. This pilot is being conducted with two providers, Cadmus and UNIwise.

The University is implementing this new software to take a further step towards our ambitions for a digitally enabled assessment and assessment management environment, and to maintain a high level of assessment assurance and to uphold academic integrity in an online environment, without imposing on student privacy or compromising the student experience. By using these assessment platforms, we are also creating opportunities for more inclusive assessment methods that will support our anticipatory duties towards students with disabilities, and further our ambitions for equality of outcomes and experiences amongst student groups..

Why are we using two types of Digital Assessment Platforms?

Cadmus and UNIwise offer two distinctly different platforms that could be useful to various types of assessment. Cadmus is seen to be more suited to longer form submitted assessments, while UNIwise could be more applicable to ‘tests’ or ‘exams’, with features that give the ability to students to share hand-drawn diagrams and develop code.

What are some of the benefits of using Digital Assessment Platforms?

  • Real-time monitoring of assessment through live dashboards as students engage in an exam
  • Opportunity to use a variety of assessment formats in a digital environment
  • A lock-down browser function that will prevent students from accessing other online resources during an exam
  • Ability to include multimedia and resources through the platform, to create more authentic assessments

What is the timeline for rolling out this software across the whole University?

We are currently trialling these platforms with nine courses in semester one, and a different nine courses in semester two. All courses are split across the four Colleges to give us a better understanding of how the platforms are resonating with staff and students. Both staff and students involved in piloting the courses will take part in an evaluation of their experience. Once we have completed this pilot, and if the evaluation deems it a success, we will take the necessary steps to roll-out the platforms more broadly.

If you have any queries regarding the implementation of the digital assessment platforms, please get in touch with the Assessment & Feedback, Practice & Policy Workstream afpp-workstream@glasgow.ac.uk.

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First published: 6 November 2024

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