Aligning the ducks: sustaining the quality of CAA in a period of growing demand

In 2005 Canterbury Christ Church University replaced a bespoke CAA system with QuestionMark Perception and began to respond to an increased demand for online summative assessment. Robust quality assurance procedures were agreed with the stakeholders in examinations and the system was piloted with positive results. It was hoped that the increased interest in online testing would enhance learning and teaching by encouraging academic staff to provide students with formative tests and feedback using the question banks they created. During 2007 we experienced a tenfold growth in the number of summative tests delivered and struggled to keep up with the support required to assure the quality of the tests and their delivery. Both academic staff and support departments were under some pressure to maintain the standards we had set. There has been a tension between the institutional drivers and those of the academic staff whose motivation to engage in CAA has been to cope with rapidly increasing group sizes at examination times.
This presentation describes the issues experienced, the risks arising from rapid growth, and some of the ways in which we are attempting to make sure that practice and policy are aligned.