[2003]			The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Newsletter of the Faculty of Science, LJMU
Ab			stract #7.4
1849			… to be no more than 464 words.			26^th Jun 2023
				LJMU Assessment and Feedback Guidance: Policy and website Our separate assessment and feedback requirements have been consolidated into a single policy to clarify and simplify our protocols. This review brought together academics, professional service staff and students; an approach that will be repeated as regulations are (inevitably) updated over the coming years. Online guidance has been prepared, aligned with the new policy, and this acts as a repository for guidance on considering AI in assessment design.
One tweak to our policy is the introduction of ‘calibration’ for multi-marker assessments from 2023/24 onwards. In this approach, marking team members each assess a small sample of papers together before marking individually. There is growing evidence that this method efficiently establishes a shared understanding of marking and feedback quality. This parsing stage does not replace existing moderation processes, however, initial findings suggest that calibration expedites subsequent moderation.
		Ending of USB Pen Drives on Student Clients From 4/9/23, LJMU-managed student PCs will no longer accept USB pen/flash drives. This will bring student clients into line with staff clients and addresses the underlying risks associated with portable storage. All staff and students have access to 1 TB of online storage thought the OneDrive. Files saved to this cloud-based system are protected and students can restore earlier versions if needed.
MA Mental Health This programme is offered by the Faculty of Health and is cross disciplinary. It has already attracted entrants from a diverse range of backgrounds: police, teachers, nurses, HR professionals, and psychology graduates. It may be of interest to your students and details may be found here.
				Software licences confirmed for 2023/24 The Faculty has renewed annual software licences for three browser-based programs: · LearnSci: Laboratory simulations for deployment within Canvas (unlimited licence) · Labster: Virtual laboratories with unique simulations (limited licence) · Biorender: Graphical design tool for teaching and research (limited licence) For further information on any of these programs, please contact me.
Teaching-related snippets
>	The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) has published new guidance for supporting and enhancing the experience of international students.
>	Block teaching approaches have become an increasingly popular and involve the delivery of modules consecutively, rather than in parallel. Leicester De Montfort are hosting a free in-person conference devoted to this delivery mode on Thu Sep 21st 2023. They welcome submissions to present at the conference following expressions of interest. The deadline for submissions is 14th July 2023.
>	Student Advice and Wellbeing have summarised advice to staff on signposting students to Wellbeing Team.
Phil Denton, Faculty of Science Associate Dean (Education and Student Experience) Maintained by SCSADE@ljmu.ac.uk. Last Update: 28/06/2023.