Big Bang-implementation of WISEflow at Aarhus University

Aarhus BSS (Business and Social Sciences) is a broad business school and one of the four major faculties at Aarhus University. Internationally renowned, this triple-crown business school, holdingAACSB, AMBA and EQUIS accreditations, offer research-based degree programmes within academic disciplines such as economics, finance, accounting, logistics, human resource management, organisation, marketing, management information systems, innovation, entrepreneurship, business communication, law, psychology, public administration and political science.

Following a tender, Aarhus BSS chose WISEflow as their preferred platform, and began an implementation process in the spring of 2014.

Client objectives

For Aarhus BSS, the primary goals of implementing a digital exam and assessment platform were related to education, productivity and government policy.The educational objective was to be able to incorporate digital objects, such as film and datasets, in their exams. Prior to the digital assessment implementation, Aarhus BSS had implemented an LMS, thereby incorporating digital learning materials in their course teaching. This placed an increasingly large demand for digital assessment to create continuity between course material and exam material.

The productivity objective was to limit spending on paper and postage, reduce the total number of working hours related to exam administration and provide more time for lecturers and external co-examiners to mark and grade exams by reducing manual processes, such as transport.The government policy objective was to abide by the demands set forth by the Danish Ministry of Education; universities were to digitise examination procedures before the end of 2013.

Initial pilot

The initial steps to test and introduce WISEflow at Aarhus University BSS did not start with a small pilot-phase. Instead, the implementation of WISEflow at Aarhus BSS was executed by following a ‘big bang’ strategy.

Rather than a slow escalation, they committed themselves to a full implementation in spring 2014 to immediately digitise the exam and assessment process for the educational institution’s 7 departments, 1,200 educators and more than 14,000 students in the following exam period.

Project implementation & roadmap

The implementation process was facilitated on-site by a project organisation, consisting of two different project groups:

• A working group for planning and coordinating, meeting weekly, consisting of representatives from all stakeholder-groups within the administrative conduction of exams and a representative from WISEflow.
• A steering committee, meeting monthly, consisting of representatives from the faculty administration, directors of studies, the departments’ secretariat directors, the IT department, the communication department, Centre for Teaching and Learning, the working group and chaired by the Associate Dean.

The implementation team from WISEflow kept close tabs and a strong communication channel within the implementation process by cooperating with CTL (Centre for Teaching and Learning).The implementation of WISEflow was conducted following our best practice implementation schedule and in close connection with all organisational levels of Aarhus BSS. Our implementation team kept close tabs and a strong communication channel within the implementation process by cooperating day-to-day with CTL, which was appointed responsible for coordinating the practical implementation at all departments within Aarhus BSS, as they had prior experience in system responsibility, system integration, system training, support, communication and roll-out.

For our part, the daily cooperation process with CTL followed our best-practice implementation procedure with several communication activities for the range of different stakeholders.

• UNIwise representatives continually met with the project managers from CTL to ensure that the implementation process followed the initial objectives laid out by Aarhus University BSS.
• A part of the implementation process of WISEflow is designated workshops, where different groups of stakeholders in the exam and assessment process are introduced to the platform and thoroughly educated in how to use the digital tools available to them specifically. Customised workshops were arranged to make invigilators, academics responsible for creating exams, assessors and exam administrators accustomed to their new digital work environment and the new tools and functionalities that would shape their future work routines.
• As a last step before conducting their first digital exams, we helped Aarhus University BSS apply their new skill set to the oncoming exams. We created a complete overview of the specific exams and mapped the appertaining necessary preparations and thereby created a custom ‘template’ for their new digital exam and assessment procedure.

Following a fast-paced and very efficient implementation with ties to all levels of the organisation, the new digital exam and assessment process began already in summer of 2014. During the next three exam periods, Aarhus BSS conducted 105,000 individual exams distributed across 1,100 exam flows in WISEflow, all resolved without any form of system crash or cancellation or postponement of exams due to technical errors.

Using WISEflow, Aarhus BSS were able to conduct both home assignments and on-site exams in a digital environment, and about 90% percent of all their written exams were digitised within that first year.

Support and maintenance

WISEflow was - and is - delivered as a full product package with continual update and maintenance services included. By purchasing WISEflow, Aarhus BSS has received continual major updates of the platform twice a year, with everything included in their initial price.

Full access to our support lines was also included. For on-site management, Aarhus BSS designated one system administrator and two dedicated supporters, all of which spend approximately 50 percent of their time one other platforms and systems employed by the educational institution as well.

In relation to the implementation, Aarhus BSS requested a custom development to integrate WISEflow with their Student Information System, to be able to transfer grades automatically. This resulted in a one-time expense of 38.000 GBP.

Benefits realised and project successes

After three exam periods with a new digital exam and assessment work routine, Aarhus BSS declared a successful implementation.

• Meeting the political requirements for digitising assessment
• Securing another prerequisite for technology-enhanced teaching and blended learning
• Offering students a contemporary platform and exams in a medium similar to what the students use in other parts of their lives.
• Implementing systematic plagiarism control
• Enhancing efficiency of the exam administration and improve the physical working environment