As part of the institute's LTA overhaul, I've been put in charge of a group looking at LTA processes.
First on the list is assessment calendars.

To the right is a current example provided by Games Design. The layout has apparently been 'borrowed' from another course, but a quick google image search for 'assessment calendar' proves that this is a fairly standard presentation of modules and dates.

Problem solved. We were asked to provide a standard assessment calendar and we've got one straight away. If it isn't broken...

But I think it is broken. As with many of these sorts of important house keeping documents, no thought has been given to accessibility, presentation, legibility or to our students. Yes, the calendar contains the correct information but that's all it does. It doesn't make it easy to identify year groups, semesters or specific modules - again, that information is there, but no differentiation is provided between them. The terrible analogy that comes to mind is this - you could store your clothes in a bucket but a wardrobe and chest of drawers is a far better clothing storage solution.

Another issue that we identified is the multiple instances where we generate 2 versions of the same information' once for administration purposes and another for students. Admin or 'official' documents are often complicated and difficult to read which is why we create a second, clearer version for students. A good example of this is the timetable. The centrally generated timetable is absolutely unsuitable and fails to provide concise information to students which is why I don't know of any course that doesn't create their own version. Wherever possible I intend to define a process where one document suits both admin and students - this suggests that students need to be the primary user rather than admin; a reversal of the current approach? Bizarrely, I think so.

​The above is an example assessment calendar created for Level 4 illustration where concise clarity has been prioritised. 

There's no reason to share a full, multi level calendar with students. They will only be interested in seeing the information relating to their own needs.

This calendar was created in Excel and is part of what I call my 'Master' document. This document contains regularly required information and is embedded - for staff only - on all module Bb pages. It contains:
Level 4 register
Level 5 register
Level 6 register
Level 4 timetable
Level 5 timetable
Level 6 timetable
All modules and MDFs
Grades (formative and summative)
Student emails addresses
Student ID numbers
Student website URLs
and, now
Assessment Calendars

Whilst the live document is accessible by staff only, the layout and presentation has been created with students in mind. All student facing components e.g. timetable, have been taken from this master document and shared via Bb.

Another benefit is that access to the document can be shared with admin departments. This means that PAD are able to check the register for student attendance - reducing the need for email enquiries.

​​If a blank master document could be designed and shared with all courses as well as included within all Bb templates, then it would be a matter of populating these at the beginning of an academic year and utilising them throughout. If we could make this a common practice then the visual presentation of crucial information would become standardised and simplified. At present we are each striving to solve the same problems and doing so with mixed results.

Examples of a current academic calendars

​Targets:
Separate year groups & semesters
Remove unnecessary information
Simplify visual presentation