“WISEflow is a good alternative to classroom examinations, with some major advantages”: the University of Malta on the insights WISEflow can provide
The University Quadrangle, next to University House, where a number of events are held. All images courtesy of the University of Malta.
The University of Malta is a higher education institution in Malta with more than 11,000 students. It offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, postgraduate master's degrees and postgraduate doctorates. The university has a 400-year history, and its main campus is located in Msida.
What follows is interviews with UM academics and staff members, conducted by the University of Malta, about their experiences using WISEflow. Interviews are reproduced with permission from the University of Malta.
Managing the assessment process using WISEflow
Professor Jean Calleja Agius, Head of Department of Anatomy within the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery, reflects on the collaborative environment WISEflow provides.
When did you start using WISEflow and for what purposes?
I still remember very clearly that fateful day in mid-April of 2020. We had the landmark online meeting where the very first group of academics were invited for this presentation by UNIwise, where the developers of WISEflow were introducing their product to us. From then on, there was no looking back, and both within the Faculty and externally, we started seeking each other’s support in order to understand how to make full use of it.
How many exams are being conducted by the Department through WISEflow?
In Semester 2 of the academic year of 2019/2020, the Department of Anatomy had practically all the exams on WISEflow (17 in total), ranging from multiple choice questions, extended matching questions, essays, spotting, etc (the only exceptions were a couple of modules which were servicing units where the respective Faculties involved were more conservative and preferred to switch to assignments on VLE). In the September resit sessions, my Department co-ordinated 34 exams using WISEflow.
How easy was it to navigate through WISEflow?
There was the whole spectrum of IT saviness among the members of my Department, but we managed to work together and did numerous internal tutorials for both academics and students to instruct how to use WISEflow.
We developed a hybrid model for the board of examinations (BOEs), where the exam paper was first reviewed through an online BOE and then the co-ordinator inputted the final paper on WISEflow, being checked again by the HOD as Chairperson and also by the Manager.
Another issue was the fact that the exams on WISEflow, which are meant to be taken on site, were being used by the students unsupervised at home, meaning that technically this was an open book exam.
Therefore, following internal discussions and after informing the students well in time before the exams, modifications were done to the assessment method, for example changing to case-based type of MCQs, decreasing the time allotted for the spotting within proven reasonable limits, changing MCQs to short answer questions, and now even introducing proctoring via Zoom.
For the February exam session, the Department of Anatomy is co-ordinating 2 exams that are being done on WISEflow, and these will be proctored via Zoom.
In my opinion, WISEflow is a very useful platform when used in a proctored environment, ideally on site. Although it still needs to continue to be developed further to make it even more user-friendly and personalise it to the different needs required for diverse modes of assessment, I am sure that with our IT colleagues, the Office of the Registrar and UM academics, the product can be further developed to suit the needs of UM, so that, even once the pandemic is over, WISEflow has the potential to become one of the main exam platforms.
What kind of assistance was offered to you to facilitate the use of WISEflow?
As the Semester 2 exams in 2020 started inching closer, the UM, thanks to the Office of the Registrar and the HR training, organised a series of online training sessions for all members of staff, which was very helpful to clear issues that we were encountering. However, the sense of community among the academics and administrators both within the Department, and intra- and inter-Faculty and peer support was especially helpful and brought us together at this very particular difficult time of isolation. I found the help that I got locally especially important in personalising the individual issues related to our very particular mode of assessment.
“In my opinion, WISEflow is a very useful platform when used in a proctored environment, ideally on site.”
A real-time view of students’ progress
Marvic Cuschieri, Senior Faculty Manager at the Faculty of Science, reflects on the ability to monitor students’ progress as one of the most useful features of WISEflow.
When did you start using WISEflow?
I started using WISEflow as from this February examination session. During the last academic year, all lecturers within our Faculty opted to
use the Exam VLE platform and hence it was a totally new experience for me and my team during this examination session.
How easy is it to navigate through it, especially after the training and Q&A sessions offered by HR?
At first glance, considering I was accustomed to another platform I thought it involved a lot of work. But after attending the training session again in November (since I had attended the first training session during April 2020) I understood the process immediately and found it easy to navigate and set up. All the setting up of the flows were done by the departmental administrators and were then checked with members of staff at the main office. Finally, I checked all the flows and examination papers uploaded myself to make sure there were no errors. In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful administration team here at the Faculty of Science as they all worked together in a very efficient and effective manner. Thanks to all the attention to detail given, this examination session went very well, without any mishaps.
What is your favourite feature of WISEflow so far?
WISEflow has a lot of features. One of them is the fact that you can view the students' progress as they are doing their examination. This makes monitoring easier than that of VLE exams. Another good aspect is safety in sharing the examination paper as the author (the lecturer) can easily share the paper with the other members of the board of examiners, securely, without the need of password-protecting the document etc. Another important feature is that the assessor can immediately input the grades on WISEflow, which will then be exported and imported into SIMS directly as actual results.
Would you recommend the use of WISEflow to your colleagues?
Yes, definitely. It is safe, easy and very convenient as an examination platform. Obviously, the platform has its flaws but these issues are always present when introducing a new system. With feedback from staff using WISEflow, the system will be made more adaptable to our online examination requirements.
“WISEflow is a good alternative to classroom examinations, with some major advantages.”
Interactive assessment with WISEflow
Professor Gorg Mallia, Head of the Department of Media & Communications within the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, “was hooked” after attending UNIwise’s introduction to WISEflow. Here, he reflects on how data stored within WISEflow can help examiners plan for future exams.
What purpose did the WISEflow training offered by the University serve?
Logically, I attended a couple of training sessions organised by the University of Malta, which were conversational and useful. This meant that I could not just use the software myself, but also help members of staff of the Department I lead who had difficulties in its implementation.
Is WISEflow a good alternative to classroom examinations, and why?
I find WISEflow to be quite intuitive, with a few exceptions which were covered by the coaching. It is a good alternative to classroom examinations, with some major advantages, including in-built selection of correct answers in multiple choice quizzes, and the fact that questions are then stored for future use.
How has the process of monitoring students sitting for exams through WISEflow been?
Our monitoring of students sitting for exams delivered through WISEflow indicated a smooth process with very few, and manageable glitches.
Logically, unless stringent monitoring through camera is maintained, and this is a possibility, exams sat for in individual student homes automatically become open-book, so that needs to be taken into consideration when designing both the content and the extent of exams.
Do you see yourself using WISEflow in the years to come?
I expect WISEflow to be with us for quite a few years to come, potentially also as a way of delivering exam questions within a classroom setting.
