leapsacademicskills
  • START
  • BASICS
    • Course team
    • Using this site
    • Study and assessment
    • Campus map
  • WEEK-BY-WEEK
    • Week 1 >
      • Academic resources
      • Critical thinking
    • Week 2 >
      • Feedback
      • Discussion and presentation
    • Week 3 >
      • Presenting evidence
      • Academic writing
    • Week 4
    • Week 5
    • Week 6
    • Week 7
  • OTHER RESOURCES
    • Glossary
    • RLF Writing & Note Taking
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Study and assessment

This page contains key information about the Academic Skills course, including the two compulsory assessment exercises. We strongly encourage you to take time to familiarise yourself with these materials during the early stages of the course, and to seek clarification where required.

The Course Descriptor
Brief for the Individual Writing Assessment (IWA)
Brief for the Team Project
Updated reading list!
Peer Assessment Form

UPDATE - Sunday 8 July, 19.30
IMPORTANT: IWA SUBMISSION
NEW DEADLINE: Monday 9 July, 14.00
NEW SUBMISSION DETAILS: see below

Due to an unforeseen issue with Learn, we are now asking that the IWA is submitted by email to the following email addresses:
alice.c.smith@ed.ac.uk
leaps@ed.ac.uk
It is important that you email BOTH addresses.
If you have already sent an a copy of your work by email, please do so again before the deadline. Any work emailed after the new deadline will be considered late, as per our guidelines.

We apologise for the last minute changes - this is due to a technical issue with Summer School accounts.

Thank you to those of you who spotted the problem and raised this with us.

Submitting your Individual Written Assessment
The written assignment is to be submitted via the Academic Skills pages on Learn.

To see how to submit your IWA on Learn, view this guide.

Note: It is important you follow the guidelines in the brief when submitting your work.
Written Assessment: late submission penalty
Here are some notes clarifying the position on the late submissions of your written assessment.

If you:
  • submit your work after the 9.00 deadline on Mon 9 July but within one week of the deadline
  • submit your work in the wrong format (e.g. not in Word format, so we can't read it) and don't resubmit in the correct format by the deadline
your essay will be considered late, and your essay will be subject to the late submission penalty.

Late submission penalty - this is a reduction of 10% of your mark for the written assessment. For example, if your work is awarded 62%, a reduction of 6% will be taken off, resulting in a final mark of 56%.

If you do not submit your written work within a week of the deadline your work will not be marked and you will be awarded zero.

Weekly project team meetings
Every week you will be expected to meet, as a team, for a formal meeting with your Student Tutor. The timing of your meetings should be negotiated with your Student Tutor and all team members will be expected to be present. This will be a valuable opportunity for you to reflect on your progress and to gain some useful feedback and encouragement. Although the content of the meetings will vary from week-to-week, you will always be expected to give a clear report on your progress on the Team Project.  
Media Hopper
This is the platform we use for showing and uploading films on the course. You will be shown Media Hopper - what it is and how to use it - during class on Thurs 7 June.

Here is the link to our private Media Hopper Channel for this course: Academic Skills 2018.

For a Media Hopper Guide, see here.

You can also find all of our publicly available Academic Skills films here: Academic Skills Films
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Referencing and plagiarism
It is important that any materials, ideas or individuals that inform your own thinking are acknowledged within your work, particularly in the two assessment exercises. To this end we would you like to use the Harvard referencing system to draw attention to these different resources in your work. While there are different interpretations of the Harvard system we particularly like how our colleagues at the Open University present their guidelines for Harvard Referencing.

How we calculate your final mark for the course
On Thursday 19 July (Week 7), you will receive oral and written feedback, and a percentage score, for the Individual Written Assessment and the Team Project presentation. Feedback will take place in the form of a discussion where we will ask you to reflect individually and as a team on how you felt you performed against the assessment criteria, before explaining how we marked you against each criterion.

Course Assessment Report
Your overall performance in the Academic Skills course will be recorded in a Course Assessment Report and will include the following:
  • an overall percentage score and a break down of marks for each of the two assessment exercise
  • an assessment of your written and oral communication skills
  • an outline on how you contributed towards the Team Project (and whether this was seen as effective)
  • an indication of your contribution to tutorial and workshop discussion
  • a statement from Alice or Jenna reflecting your overall attitude and performance across the course

Our qualitative comments on the Assessment Report will be informed by reports from our Student Tutors (see Course Descriptor).

Assessment Reports will be written in the days following the end of the course.
LEAPS 2018