Students, Staff and Systems The Swinburne Experience

Andreana Newson

Assessments and Progression Manager

Swinburne University of Technology

• Swinburne began as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College in 1908 and gained university status in 1992

• In 2015 Swinburne University comprises five campuses in Melbourne and one campus in Sarawak Malaysia.

• Swinburne Online (SOL) was launched in 2011 and is a joint venture between Swinburne University and Seek.

• Swinburne delivers courses and programs in the Vocational and Higher Education sectors and has a number of Industry specific programs across the university.

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History and Background

In 2014 Swinburne instituted a number of significant changes • The faculty structure changed from five faculties to three • The Integrated Service Model began • Swinburne transitioned from ASCOL to Student One on April

30 2014

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2014

A year of change

• Staff were mapped based on current roles and skill sets • After mapping to positions, staff were given the opportunity

to present an expression of interest for vacant roles • At the start of 2014, the Assessment and Progression team

started work with new groupings, new structures and a new Student Management system

• I began as manager in July 2014

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The Integrated Services Model ( ISM)

• Faculty realignment and the formation of the ISM caused a number of issues with reporting lines being unclear for administration staff

• Owning faculties for some units were still being finalised • Lack of clarity on what was a faculty responsibility and what

was an ISM responsibility • Teams were aligned to tasks ( eg Assessment, Graduations,

Enrolments) rather than following the student life cycle. • Teams did not necessarily sit together which sometimes

presented a challenge for teams to work together across different locations

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THE IMPACT OF THE ISM

• Some staff were very fond of ASCOL but there was a need for an updated system which better catered for the needs of the university

• On April 30 Student One went live with data available from ASCOL for historical inquiries

• All staff had training on Student One before go live but role specific set ups for teams was still a work in progress and 18 months on that work is still continuing

• In the Assessment and Progress teams the Semester One Higher Education exams were fast approaching.

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STUDENT ONE

• In 2015 Student Administration was moved to the International and Students division

• Student Administration became part of the university that had the brief of supporting a comprehensive student portfolio from marketing through to graduation.

• The new mantra was “Students First” our work had to have the “student” as our focus and complaints and our response to them changed to a ten day turn around.

• All decisions and activities need to have the student experience as a guiding principle rather than the work task.

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2015 STUDENT FIRST.

• Swinburne like most universities have had challenges with the uncertainty of government funding levels and a competitive market for students

• All sections of the university has been effected with pressure to reduce costs across the board

• Later in the presentation I will discuss how this has effected my area of responsibility.

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BUDGET BITES

Now I have set the scene I would like to talk about my team and their work

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The Assessment and Progressions team

• Following the formation of the ISM, my team consists of the following people

• Four HEW 6 staff with the titles of Exams Team Leader, Exams Specialist and Student progress team leaders

• Four HEW 5 Exams Officers • Seven HEW 5 Progress Officers • Four HEW 5 Student Results Officers with responsibility for

resulting and engagement and completions in the Vocational Sector.

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The Exams team and the Progress team

The Exams Team are based centrally and manage our 14 exam periods. • Higher Education Semester 1 and 2 • Special Exams Semester 1 and 2 • On line studies periods 1-4 (direct enrolled students and

management of papers to Monash Exams Services) • Higher Education Summer and Winter • Foundation and Pathways ( Swinburne College) Teaching

periods 1 to 3 • Last to complete exams and mid semester tests twice a year

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The Exams Team

• The Progress teams are based in the three Higher Education faculties and manage exam paper submission, special consideration, resulting and all activities on Student progress.

• They work closely with the Exams Team and are the first line of contact with academics at Exam paper submission and resulting periods

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The Progress Teams

• I think working with academics could be a topic that stands on its own.

• In my role as Manager I meet with the Pro Vice Chancellor ( Education and Quality) and the Associate Deans of Learning Innovation to discuss exam policies, processes and timelines. The most important being when their exams are due and when their results must be in.

• My Progress teams deal with the faculty academics and help them through the important processes of labelling files correctly and submitting results on Blackboard without making errors.

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Working with our academics

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INVIGILATION

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Invigilation Overview

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Mosaic Recruitment

• Mosaic Recruitment have had a relationship with Swinburne for the past 6 years.

• In the past they sourced all our invigilators for mainstream exams and EAA exams. ( Equitable Assessment Arrangements)

• They have a dedicated consultant who works with Swinburne and attends most examination days at both our venues

• In 2014 the contract was renegotiated and we accepted Mosaic for mainstream exam invigilation and another provider for invigilation for EAA students.

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Profile of our invigilators

• In 2014 we concluded our contract with Melbourne Park and began with Etihad Stadium in 2015

• Our new venue Etihad Stadium has caused us to relook at our profile of assessors

• There is now a requirement for greater walking to the exam room from the exam centre at the venue, the higher student to invigilator ratio means that they need to work faster preparing the papers for the examination to begin on time.

• Our invigilators increasingly need a high level of emotional intelligence to manage students who may be in a heightened state of anxiety.

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Invigilators before and now

• Two weeks before the two major exam periods of the year we conduct a three hour mandatory training session for all Mosaic and Dixons invigilators

• We have changed the focus of our training session over the past 2 years from a procedural emphasis to a focus on upskilling

• My team also produces a comprehensive training manual for our invigilators

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Mandatory Training

• How do we expect our invigilators to speak to our students? • How do we expect them to handle difficult students? • How do we expect them to manage misconduct and be aware

of new technologies that students use to cheat? • Are they able to recognise students who are significantly

stressed and anxious in an examination setting? • How can we manage the physical requirements of the

position given the profile of our workforce?

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Invigilators The Big Questions?

Our Invigilator Handbook is prepared each Semester and it is our expectation that all our invigilators have read and understood the contents of this document. It covers Administrative information, invigilator conduct and duties, Exam procedures and a copy of all exam documents, sample forms and job descriptions for each role in the process. Some of the external staff have roles in pre and post packing of exams and venue supervisors.

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The Invigilator Handbook

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Dixon Appointments

Dixon appointments have had an ongoing relationship with Swinburne University. They provide casual workers for Student Administration and Education Access workers Swinburne Access Ability services.

They applied for the contract for invigilation services and we gave them the contract for exam invigilation for student with Equitable Assessment Arrangements.

We chose Dixons because with the aim of improving the student experience we endeavoured to match the Education Access workers with the students they worked with from supporting in class through to the examination. This had not happened before.

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Profile of Invigilators Dixons Appointments

• 60% of the EAA students who had an Education Access worker were able to have the same person support them in their exams.

• 80% of the Dixons invigilators were experienced Education Access Workers.

• This change in provider has resulted in a more highly skilled invigilator workforce for students who qualify for special arrangements during the exam period

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Swinburne and Dixons requirements

• Dixons conduct a detailed interview and vetting process for their employees

• All Dixons employees complete Swinburne mandatory on line training for Occupational Health and Safety, Equal Employment Opportunity, Protective Disclosure and Information Privacy Awareness

• Dixons also provide a staff member who visits the campus during the exam period and they also provide phone support to troubleshoot any staff issues

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The Semester 1 2015 exam period

I would now like to take you through our Semester One 2015

exam period and how we worked through the challenge of multiple venues with our invigilators

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ETIHAD STADIUM OUR NEW EXAM VENUE

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Etihad Stadium 1100 students per sitting

• Exams were also held at our Hawthorn Campus • All our students with Equitable Assessment Arrangements (

EAA) have their exams at Hawthorn using one floor of a major teaching building catering for a large number of assessment requirements

• We need to use the campus large rooms in order to complete all exams within the designated examination period especially in June when we need to work around the AFL football season

• Our invigilators were able to foil some students plans for “assisted toilet breaks” by removing five sets of cheat notes in their pre exam checking process.

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Hawthorn Campus exams

• All Swinburne staff and Mosaic and Dixons Staff have to complete the online Occupational Health and Safety module as part of their appointment.

• All Swinburne examination staff and key supervisors from Mosaic recruitment completed the Etihad Stadium “Inducted Contractor” on line module.

• Etihad Stadium presented some new challenges for us including more walking for our invigilators and navigating front and back of house.

• After a small number of minor injuries for Semester 2 2014 exams, safety was a focus for Semester 1 2015 in our training and approach.

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OH and S on campus and off campus

The following things happened • We made the papers • We had one major packing error when students were sitting

FIN 30004 and FIN 30014 in the same room on the same day. You can guess what happened next…….

• A signal box fire delayed all Melbourne trains on the morning of our second last exam day.

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With all the best planning in the world……….

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After the exam period

• My team manages Special Considerations • The focus moves to resulting

• A number of key stakeholders have debriefing sessions

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Student Feedback Student Union

• As part of our exam follow up I met with the President of the Swinburne Student Union to hear their feedback

• The student union mans a Help Desk at our major exam periods where they provide stationary and advice to nervous students

• Their feedback often centres on invigilator behaviour. • Student feedback is always taken very seriously and followed

up

• At Swinburne complaints are taken very seriously and have high visibility right up to the Vice Chancellor. This closely correlates to our “Student First” philosophy.

• I would like to share with you some of the student complaints received about our invigilators

• It is clear that invigilator behaviour can significantly effect some student’s examination experiences.

• As a follow up if a complaint was able to be followed up I would speak with the Mosaic or Dixon s Manager and either counselling or withdrawal of further shifts would occur.

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Student Feedback Complaints

• Bringing all assessment activities under the umbrella of the Assessment and progression team some inconsistent approaches to assessment have been uncovered.

• One example of this was a online distance cohort who had their exams put in the post without any consistent process of vetting or security for the paper.

• This cohort now has Monash Exams Services to administer regional, interstate and overseas exams with the local students sitting on campus for their exams.

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The ISM and Exams

• I am sure that budget cuts at your university has impacted on your area.

• This is certainly the case for me, the invigilator ratio changed from 1 to 50 in 2014 to 1 to 60 in 2015.

• In our largest room at Etihad Stadium which has 750 seats this would equate to savings of 2 staff per three hour session.

• We also offer invigilation support for Mid Semester tests with an enrolment of over 50.

• In addition to using members of my own team, other student administration staff have been asked to assist in peak times

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Budget issues

• This raises the question of the role of the invigilator as a specialist role or one that just needs to be the “body” to stand there.

• I would argue that it is a specialist role that requires training, excellent communication skills and an understanding of the assessment process and a consistent approach to invigilation.

• Some of my colleagues at the university believe that they should not be expected to do this and the faculty administration staff do not see this as their role.

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Staff as invigilators????

• Online exams are on the agenda for the future and Swinburne academics are actively involved in investigation of new assessment models for our students.

• New ways of checking identity.

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Exams in the future

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