Two University of Malta students at the Msida Campus. 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.

Choosing WISEflow

Professor Victor Buttigieg, an Associate Professor within the Department of Communications & Computer Engineering within the Faculty of ICT, was entrusted with the task of training the UM academic staff on WISEflow.

How were you approached to start offering training on the use of WISEflow?

Mr Robert Sultana, Chief Information Officer & Director of IT Services, approached me to deliver training sessions on the use of WISEflow to academic staff.  It was felt that my IT background and my academic experience would facilitate these training sessions.  I had also used WISEflow in the June 2020 examination session and attended a number of training sessions given by UNIwise, the company behind WISEflow, last year.

How did you approach the task of training academics with different levels of tech-savviness?

It proved to be less daunting that it looks.  Academics are quick to pick things up. We made sure to show all the steps required to set up an exam in an easy-to-follow manner, without making any assumptions.  Colleagues from the Registrar’s office and IT Services also helped during these sessions by answering questions in real-time in the chat box. This was done to clarify any aspects that might not have been clear to all attendees.  Since some faculties have their own particular procedures how to conduct exams, issues particular to specific exam procedures were also dealt with during the training sessions through the questions raised.

Academics have so far told us that they found your method useful because it was a conversationalist one. Why do you think giving and receiving feedback is important in such training on a new piece of software?

Not everyone has the same background and the same outlook.  Therefore, I think that it is important that any training takes on board the point of view of the attendees.  The fact that I, as an academic, face similar problems as the other examiners, facilitated my role.  I also tried to relate the use of WISEflow to what we normally follow when setting up exams under normal circumstances.

What are the best features of WISEflow, in your opinion?

Compared to Exam VLE used last June, WISEflow offers several advantages.  First, it is a tried and tested system used by several other universities and specifically designed to conduct online exams.  

Secondly, the various responsibilities are very well defined and delineated in WISEflow through the various roles that can be assigned to different persons handling the exam process itself. 

WISEflow allows the possibility to examine our students in different ways, that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve.  For example, one can include some audio or, indeed, a video as part of the examination question. 

But maybe one of the best features in WISEflow is the ability to automate the assessment process for certain question types, such as for multiple choice questions.  Not only that, but it also offers a multitude of statistics on how the students performed, enabling the examiner to determine, for instance, if there were any problematic questions in the exam. 

What are its limitations, and how are we overcoming them?

WISEflow was not designed to conduct exams remotely, as we are applying it during this pandemic.  This aspect presents its own very real challenges. 

There also was not enough time for us academics to get familiar with it properly so that we can make use of its full potential.  Having said that, WISEflow itself is a work-in-progress and some of its features are not yet fully developed.  For instance, no plagiarism detection tool is available when conducting a FLOWmulti type of exam where multiple choice questions are mixed with essay type ones. 

Also, some aspects of the user interface and behaviour is not consistent throughout the various options available within WISEflow.  This makes learning the software that little bit more difficult. 

Being a generic software application, it is not customised to the way we do things at the University of Malta.  In most cases, workarounds have been found and offered to the various examiners with specific requirements, thanks to the staff at the Registrar’s office and IT Services that have been tasked with handling these procedural and technical problems.  The staff at the Office for Human Resources Management & Development responsible for training and development have also been great in organising a spectrum of training sessions. 

I think the University as a whole, both us academics and the support staff, have done miracles in these past few months during this pandemic to ensure that lectures go ahead without too many hiccups and to ensure that we can examine our students in a fair and timely manner.  I think that the University should be proud of its achievements and should publicise this more. 

How confident are you that online assessment and examinations will go smoothly?

Very confident! We have already proved ourselves during the June 2020 session, so I see no reason why we won’t do so again this time round, given the additional experience gained. I am sure there will be some minor hiccups along the way, but nothing that cannot be handled by our very capable academic and support staff.

Getting trained up in WISEflow

Prof. Frank Bezzina, Dean of the Faculty for Economics, Management & Accountancy, and Head of the Department of Management within the same Faculty, reflects on his WISEflow training.

What kind of help did you find at your disposal as you were trying to get to grips with WISEflow? 

For those who prefer instructed-led training sessions, where they can sound off their concerns, the training sessions led by Professor Victor Buttigieg were extremely useful.

Those who would rather follow tutorials at their own pace can make use of the ‘get started’ guides.

I made use of both.

Are the WISEflow training sessions comprehensive? 

Indeed. I found these instruction-led training sessions very useful as they provided (1) a hands-on learning experience with step-by-step instructions, (2) practice on how to operate the software and (3) the opportunity to ask questions. 

How easy it is follow WISEflow-related tutorials? 

I managed to execute the entire process of uploading examination papers by myself, and setting the exam paper comprising multiple choice items and fill in the blanks using FLOWmulti, one of my favourite WISEflow features. 

I would like to emphasise that assistance was promptly provided by the Office of the Registrar and IT Services. 

Would you recommend your colleagues to follow in your footsteps and get acquainted with WISEflow? 

Oh, definitely. It’s a much-needed support system to get us all, academics and students alike, through exam season.

The assessment workflow

Dr Vincent Marmara, statistician and lecturer in the Department of Management within the Faculty of Economics, Management & Accountancy, reflects on the assessment workflow.

When did you start making use of WISEflow?

Due to the pandemic, most of us had to explore all possible tools to ensure our efficiency in delivering the best knowledge to our students.

WISEflow was one of those tools that our IT services offered to all academics.

I started using WISEflow to set my exams, and the process from last year to this one was very smooth and organised.

Were administrative staff able to assist you with any queries?

With it being a new system, some minor issues were bound to arise. However, the administrative staff at our faculty were well-trained to assist us in any difficulties encountered.

Their support encouraged our participation in using WISEflow.

What is the best feature of WISEflow, in your opinion?

All people involved in the process of setting, managing, approving and reviewing the exam papers were all in communication through this one source. Thus it made it easier for everyone to follow the pathway of the exam paper.

Are you going to keep using WISEflow?

Yes, and I would like to conclude by thanking and congratulate HRMD, IT Services, and the Office of the Registrar for their continuous support and their professionalism to adapt quickly to this new reality.