Improving the Collaborative TMA on DE200 and Assessing the Impact of these Improvements on AL Satisfaction

The aim of this project was to solve the issues related to TMA15, which is a collaborative TMA in DE200. This module has around 3000 students and forms one of three core modules on the psychology degree programme. The changes were seen as a priority because there have been several issues identified concerning the administration of the TMA from both a student and an AL perspective. The changes that were needed were both administrative and technical. LDS were used to made changes to the activity page that is used as part of the TMA (posting anonymous suggestions, polling, and voting) whilst I made some administration changes to aid clarity. My approach to this scholarship project was to measure the effectiveness of improvements to TMA15 through a quantitative questionnaire administered through Qualtrics. This questionnaire was sent to associate lecturers who tutor on DE200 both before the changes were made (February 2020) and with the intention to re-test after the changes (December 2020). The survey used a range of Likert questions. ALs were asked about their experiences of navigating the activity page for TMA15 and their perceptions of how the students found the activity page. In the second section of the questionnaire ALs were asked to respond to a list of statements about the administration and marking of TMA15. In total, there were 26 quantitative questions using 1-7 Likert scales. 

The pre-improvement questionnaire identified that ALs felt that the activity page was not particularly easy for them to use but were particularly concerned that the students did not find it easy to use. They also reported high agreement with questions relating to having to students needing reminders of when to post, that they were confused where to post and that they found it difficult to know who had posted. All of these responses supported the need for changes to be made to the TMA.   Over the summer of 2020, LDS and myself worked hard to get the changes made to the acitivity page, the module website and the accompanying guidance. Unfortunately, despite initial testing at a small scale, the technology failed and the activity page could not cope with the volume of traffic so the TMA had to be abandoned. 

Original project outline 

The aim of this project is to solve many of the issues related to TMA15 which is the collaborative TMA in DE200. Following this, the effectiveness of these improvements will be measured by using a questionnaire both before and after the changes which will be administered through Qualtrics. By improving these aspects of TMA15 it should lead to higher satisfaction and greater collaboration between students. 

TMA15 is an important assessment in DE200 as it helps to fulfil the collaboration criteria required for the core BPS accredited psychology undergraduate degree (Q07). As such, students are required to pass this TMA in order to pass this core module. There have been several issues identified concerning the technical and procedural aspects of the TMA from both a student and an AL perspective. These issues have been highlighted through 19 separate threads and over 470 posts (to date) on the DE200 tutor forum. Further, issues were raised by students at a recent Board of Studies meeting where they expressed concern surrounding the lack of clarity and consistency regarding the TMA requirements. Exploring the AL and student feedback, a number of measures can be implemented to ensure both students and staff have a more positive experience of this collaborative TMA in the future. The changes to be implemented are both technical and administrative. Therefore, LDS have been commissioned to assist with the technical changes required. To fully recognise the impact of these improvement measures, this project will first use a survey of DE200 ALs to identify their current attitudes and feelings regarding this collaborative TMA and a follow-up survey will then be conducted in 20J to gauge the impact of the changes.