Student Progress Dashboard

Log on to RISIS, click on the ‘Information’ page and then the ‘Programmes and Modules’ tab. You will then be able to see the link to access your Dashboard in a dedicated area, alongside other information related to your study, such as your programme, your modules, your marks and your programme specifications. The Dashboard container will provide you with two links-one to view your Dashboard and the other to set the range for your goals, if you opt to use this feature.

When you click on the ‘information’ page in RISIS and then the ‘Programmes and Modules’ tab to access your Dashboard, you will see an option to click on a goal setting screen. This screen asks you to outline a range of marks which you would like to achieve across your individual pieces of assessment, overall module and Part marks. The Dashboard then uses your goal-setting and goal-sharing data to update the Dashboard by colour-coding the charts to show whether you have achieved this goal. The goal setting tool is entirely optional. If you choose not to use this feature, your charts will show in grey. You can, optionally, share your goal setting information with staff. If you do, the staff view of your Dashboard would also be colour-coded according to your goals. You should discuss expectations and goals with your Academic Tutor. You can return to the goal setting screen to change your targets at any time. A short video exploring goal setting is available on the Dashboard tile in Student Essentials

The Dashboard can be used by a range of staff who provide support to students including Academic Tutors, Study Advisors, Programme Administrators, Student Support Coordinators, Student Advice and Support Managers, Disability Advice Officers and Welfare Officers.

The vast majority of foundation, undergraduate and taught postgraduate students are expected to have access to their own assessment information on the Dashboard. The new platform will not become available for a small number of students because they either have no, or very few summative marks or because their individual assessment marks are not available in RISIS. These students include:

• Postgraduate research students
• Those enrolled on Degree Apprenticeships
• Postgraduate students based at Greenlands
• AHEP
  
  

The design of the Dashboard has been thoroughly reviewed by an external disability and accessibility consultant. We have focused particularly on usability and choice of colour palette for users who experience challenges differentiating between shades. Future updates of the supporting software will provide additional accessibility features. In particular, some students may encounter difficulties using screen readers with some of the graphs included within the Dashboard, depending on which type of software is in use. A resolution to this will be offered by the company we are working with to provide the Dashboard by March 2020. If any students experience difficulties in terms of accessibility, please contact the Disability Advisory service (DAS) at disability@reading.ac.uk.

Staff in Support Centres, Henley Help Desk, the ISLI Help Desk or the Student Services team for colleagues at the University of Malaysia can help students who may have queries surrounding accessing the Dashboard, moving between charts or interpreting the data showing. If Support Centre staff cannot provide an answer, they are able to contact the SIS team via the RISIS helpdesk, using the new category ‘Student Dashboard queries’. These queries will then be diverted to the EMA or SIS Team for further investigation.

We welcome any feedback that you might like to provide. Please contact Emma Mayhew, Academic Director of the EMA Programme, on e.a.mayhew@reading.ac.uk.

Students have been involved in this project from the start. Student representatives have been included in the Project Board, which has been heavily involved in all aspects of Dashboard design and delivery. Student focus groups were also central to the initial design of the Dashboard. Feedback was sought during student experience workshops and students were involved throughout the testing phase in the Spring and Summer 2019. The project team has worked with Reading Students' Union representatives who have reviewed the content of the Dashboard and advised the project team throughout. In addition, one of the EMA Programme’s full-time Graduate Partners, a 2018 University of Reading Graduate, has played a central role in design and delivery of the Dashboard including requirements gathering, technical development, extensive testing and liaison between the University and supplier throughout the entire project.

There are a range of different marks scenarios which have been considered very carefully. These include extenuating circumstances, exemptions, students who are ‘Deemed not to have sat’ and modules which are pass/fail. For detailed information on how these, and a broad range of other scenarios are showing in the Dashboard please read the document ‘Explaining your Dashboard’ in the student Essential tile or via the link from the ‘Guidance and Help’ tab on the Dashboard itself.

The Dashboard has been designed to encourage students to engage and self-reflect on progress over time by visualising attainment data and by showing this data against goals. It also provides additional information on the new Guidance and Feedback tabs, designed to help students work towards improving or maintaining attainment by identifying measures that could help-for example, increasing engagement in feedback or seeking additional academic or pastoral support. In addition, the Dashboard supports the new Academic Tutorial System by providing Tutors with more assessment information to help enhance staff-student conversations, especially around progress and performance goals. Find further student information on the Academic Tutorial System.

The Dashboard shows:

• The running average in the Part so far, and in the current academic year, weighted according to the value of each piece of assessment
• How much assessment, weighted according to value, has been completed in the Part so far
• Individual assessment marks received in the Part so far showing in chronological order on a bar graph and in a table which can be ordered as required
• The degree to which individual assessment marks have exceeded, met or missed your targets if you have chosen to set a goal
• The full set of overall module marks in the Part so far, as a bar graph, how much assessment has been completed in each module and attainment colour coded against your goals
• Individual submodular assessment marks for each credit-bearing element within each module, as a bar graph colour coded against your goals
• A table showing additional information for each individual piece of assessment including the type of submission, mark and weighting within the module

It is important to note that the Dashboard only draws on summative marks (those that are used to calculate the overall mark for the Part). It also only focuses on the marks that are achieved in the current Part (Foundation year, Part 1, 2, 3, 4 or Postgraduate Taught year) and in the current academic year. In addition, you should still reflect carefully on individual assessment marks and make absolutely sure that you also understand the progression and classification rules that apply to your particular programme. This information can be found by looking at the relevant Programme Specifications.

The Dashboard is a series of screens with a variety of charts within RISIS which show core information about your progress in the current Part, in the current academic year. The Dashboard shows how much of your summative assessment has been completed, what your progress looks like visualised into a series of graphics and how this attainment compares to the goals that you can (optionally) set for yourself.

Once your marks for a piece of work have been returned to you, in most cases they will appear in RISIS within the submodular marks screens within approximately 10 days. They can be found by logging on to RISIS, clicking ‘Information’, ’Programme and modules’ and then ‘Module marks and submodular assessment’. Find further information in our video. There may be specific circumstances that delay availability on occasions. The Dashboard draws directly on this information and will update overnight.

It is important to note that the Dashboard only shows marks achieved in the current Part, in the current academic year. It does not show marks achieved in previous Parts or previous academic years, including those achieved by students taking a Part over the course of two or more academic years, such as part-time students. These are still available for students to view on the sub modular information pages on RISIS referred to above. The student sub modular information area on RISIS contains much more information about any specific circumstances which might have impacted the mark, such as late penalties.

The Dashboard view will refresh in November each year. Returning students will be able to view marks for their previous academic year on the Dashboard until this time. After November, the current Part and year information will be available and marks will start to show as they are received in RISIS during the new academic year. The Dashboard will be available all year but do note that although still accessible, all data will be frozen and will not change during the exam period between early May and early July and also during the resit period from late July to early September.

The Dashboard will be available to students from November 2019 alongside a suite of support materials. A range of staff have had access since September. This staggered implementation was designed to allow Academic Tutors, and other involved in supporting students, to familiarise themselves with the system before using it with their tutees.