LOUISA Project

Louisa Stevenson
Louisa Stevenson

LOUISA (Learn Optimised for In-course Submission and Assessment)

At the November 2023 Learn Ultra project board, we discussed the business analysis that was undertaken via the Learn Ultra project, focusing on assessment and feedback practices across the University, and the workflows which interacted in/with Learn.

The business analysis identified that there was an inconsistent approach to assessment and feedback practices within and across Schools, resulting in unnecessary inconsistencies impacting on both staff and student experiences. Many of these complexities and inconsistencies are of our own making and arise from the culture and distributed nature of the institution.  It will be a challenging process of change to tackle these in ways which benefit but do not disrupt the aims of teaching and assessment. I am confident that the engagement we have done and the experience of our previous project s to optimise the learning environment will stand us in good stead. 

LOUISA (Learn Optimised for In-course Submission and Assessment) and is currently being planned as a 3-year project that will adopt a similar working partnership approach to its predecessors (Learn Ultra and Learn Foundations), working closely with Schools to understand their current workflows and practices and looking at where there are opportunities to improve. 

In Scope  

  • All courses on the VLE (on-campus and online along with undergraduate and postgraduate);  
  • All coursework within the VLE;  
  • Creation of consistent approaches to assessment and feedback within the VLE;  
  • Removal of all non-coursework assessments (such as digital exams) from the VLE;  
  • Review, design, and delivery of a suite of training courses to support with assessment and feedback within the VLE;  
  • Review and streamlining of both VLE-native and VLE-integrated assessment and feedback tools to support key assessment practices;  
  • User experience review of current assessment and feedback workflows;  
  • Programme of communications and engagement to gain buy-in; 
  • Learning Analytics  and reporting of assessment and feedback within Learn. 

Out of Scope  

  • Our other (VLE) learning platforms  such as SCP
  • Development or procurement of new tools or systems to support with assessment and feedback;  
  • Exams, Remote proctoring and invigilation ( a separate, sister project FLORA, will look at these).;  
  • Monitoring of staff performance;  
  • Developments to existing integrations and tools.  

LOUISA will build on the existing knowledge gathered around pain points in relation to assessment and feedback to help understand changes required to enhance and provide a more consistent student and staff experience moving forward.   

Our systems provide a deadline for student submissions and also a feedback return date by which time the staff need to have submitted feedback. All feedback is revealed to students (other than those with extensions) at the same time.  New functionality in Learn Ultra will help to consolidate workflows and reduce our reliance on multiple systems.

  • 3-year project beginning July 2024;​
  • Split across three phases:​
  • Phase one – July 2024 to July 2025: Business Analysis/User Experience and Early Adopters;​
  • Phase Two – July 2025 to July 2026: Delivery of new workflows and with at-scale training;​
  • Phase Three – July 2026 to July 2027: Embed and Evaluate.​
  • Project closure – August 2027.​

Thank you to everyone working on starting our sister projects, LOUISA and FLORA  for our focus on how our systems are used to support assessment. If you would like to know more about some inspirational women Louisa Stevenson – Wikipedia and Flora Stevenson – Wikipedia

Watch this space for updates and progress.