Glossary

A-z list

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1. A

   1. Academic Year

      At Imperial College (as with most HE institutes) the academic year runs from late September or early October to late June.

   2. Alignment

      This term is used in few ways in the case studies and, very generally, tends to refer to the designing of an assessment to clearly align with the module outcomes and teaching methods.

2. B

   1. Blackboard

      A web-based learning management system. It is College supported, and is used across College for the majority of its undergraduate degree programmes.

   2. BSc

      Batchelor of Science.  An undergraduate degree programme that usually last three years. Many departments at Imperial College offer BSc programmes. 

3. C

   1. Co-curricular modules

      Co-curricular modules are those offered College-wide to broaden the curriculum. These modules are graded but will be recorded on a pass/fail basis and as such do not contribute to the overall degree classification. Co-curricular modules can be compensated.

   2. Compulsory modules

      Compulsory modules are those which are designated as necessary to be taken as part of the programme syllabus. Compulsory modules can be compensated.

   3. Core modules

      Core modules are those which serve a fundamental role within the curriculum, and for which achievement of the credits for that module is essential for the achievement of the target award. Core modules must therefore be taken and passed in order to achieve that named award. They are approved and listed as core modules for that named award on the programme specification.

   4. Core skills

      In the context of the case studies, core skills are those which all students on an undergraduate programme are expected to master in order to graduate. 

   5. Curriculum Review

      Between 2018 and 2020 every department at Imperial College underwent a thorough review of its undergraduate degree programme provision, with formal submissions and reviews of paperwork for every aspect of their programmes. This process was known as the Curriculum Review, and all of the 2020-21 undergraduate degree cohorts started on these refreshed curricula. Many departments’ programmes saw significant changes, and departments are continually monitoring and assessing the relative merits of the changes they incorporated.

4. D

   1. Disability Advisory Service (DAS)

      The Disability Advisory Service. The division of College that provides support for students with disabilities. See here for their webpage.

5. E

   1. ECTS

      A acronym for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. All undergraduate degree courses at Imperial use this system, where 1 ECTS corresponds to 25 hours of total work by a student, and each academic year is worth 60 ECTS. All course modules have a specified number of ECTS.  

   2. Elective modules

      Elective modules are those which are in the same subject area as the field of study and are offered to students in order to offer an element of choice in the curriculum and from which students are able to select. They are approved and listed as elective modules for that named award on the programme specifications. Elective modules can be compensated.

6. F

   1. FeedbackFruits

      A College-supported interactive learning platform. 

   2. Formative Assessment

      A category of assessment which provides some form of monitoring or feedback on the progress or attainment of a student, or group, either during, or at the end of a particular task, but without necessarily providing an indication of the relative level of attainment compared with others in the cohort, or relative to some absolute scale of marks. It is often used to indicate that the assessment does not carry a grade, and is often used to contrast with summative assessment. There are several videos on formative and summative assessment on the Anatomy of Assessment pages from the Educational Development Unit.

7. G

   1. Graduate teaching assistant (GTA)

      A PhD student that provides assistance to module leads with their teaching responsibilities. A graduate teaching assistant (GTA) will normally be paid an hourly rate for their work.

8. H

   1. Hybrid teaching

      Hybrid teaching can potentially mean various things but in the context of the Anatomy of Assessment case studies it usually refers to either (a) a single teaching session carried out with an audience in the classroom, plus a live stream to a remote audience, or (b) a full module taught with some parts of purely in-person teaching, some parts of purely remote teaching and some with a blend of in-person with remote.  

9. I

   1. ILO

      An abbreviation for intended learning outcome. This is a statement of what students will be able to do at the end of a degree course, module, or assignment, if they successfully complete the exercise at the required level. The EDU has produced extensive guidance on intended learning outcomes here.  

10. L

    1. LaTeX

       A piece of free software commonly used to prepare academic documents. Users write using plain text and invoke computer code to choose the nature of the typesetting they require. This contrasts with MS Word which offers a “what you see is what you get” service. The relative merits of LaTeX vs. Word are the subject of some heated debate amongst the academic community.   

    2. Learning-by-doing

       A style of education in which students interact with an environment and adapt and learn by a trial-and-error process, with a minimum of didactic instruction from a supervisor.

11. M

    1. Metacognition

       The state of having an awareness of one’s own thoughts and actions, and the processes behind them.

    2. Microsoft Whiteboard

       As in Microsoft Whiteboard (sometimes called MS Whiteboard) an online platform that acts as a collaborative online whiteboard. MS Whiteboard is College supported, and provides an alternative to the non-College supported Padlet.

    3. Mid-term

       In the context of the Imperial College academic year, mid-term is loose expression referring to a time approximately in the middle of one of the academic terms. Terms at Imperial are approximately 10 weeks long, so mid-term usually refers to roughly the 5-week point. There is no formal half term break in the Imperial terms, though some departments may have their own form of recess of some kind, such as a “reading week” or “consolidation week”.

    4. Model answer

       An exemplar of an answer to a question as a part of summative assessment that would garner a perfect score. For short answer questions there is often only one possible model answer possible, whereas for long form, open ended question there will be no single perfect way to answer the question, making the provision of a full model answer, or, even, a variety of model answers non-trivial.  

    5. Module Evaluation Questionnaire

       Since 2021-22, the College’s own central student course evaluations system. Students are asked to complete a regular questionnaires to rate and provide feedback on the modules taken during the year.

12. P

    1. Padlet

       A collaborative web-based platform that is widely used by educators across College to facilitate group learning, particular for real time sharing of ideas and images. Though useful, the platform is not College supported.

    2. peer assessment

       Formative or summative assessment provided by students for other students.

13. Q

    1. Quality Assurance

       As well as the general definition of the term, it is worth all staff being aware that the College has a Quality Assurance and Enhancement division. The division does many essential things, including working with departments to ensure all aspects of the College’s education provision follows best practice and meets the expectations, regulations, and recommendations of national frameworks.

    2. Qualtrics

       A College supported software platform that can be used for collaborative work and data gathering. Frequently used for surveys in College.

14. R

    1. Registry

       The division of the College ultimately responsible for all academic related administrative matters.

15. S

    1. Scaffolding

       In educational theory, scaffolding refers to provision of detailed support and guidance to learners when the first encounter a subject. As learning progresses the level of support is reduced i.e. the “scaffolding” is removed.

    2. SOLE

       Acronym for Student Online Evaluation 

    3. STEMMB

       Acronyms for Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics, with the extra M for Medicine, and the B for Business. Imperial is unusual in that it has always been a STEMM-focussed university, broadening to STEMMB with the formal inclusion of the Business School as a faculty in the early 2000s.

    4. Summative Assessment

       A category of assessment which provides some form of evaluation on the level of progress or attainment, of a student, or group, either during, or at the end of a particular task. It is often used to indicate that the assessment carries a grade, and is often used to contrast with formative assessment. There are several videos on formative and summative assessment on the Anatomy of Assessment pages from the Educational Development Unit.

    5. support staff

       Usually used in the case studies to refer to a member of staff that is not in the category of an academic member of staff, e.g. administrative staff, or technicians. cf academic.

16. T

    1. Technician

       In the context of the case studies the term “technician” usually refers to an undergraduate laboratory technician.

    2. Timed remote assessment (TRA)

       At Imperial, a timed remote assessment (TRA) is usually an open book exam that a student takes at home, in a room on their own, without any invigilation procedure. TRAs were widely used in place of invigilated, in-person, closed book exams during the pandemic. EDU guidance on TRAs can be found here.

    3. Trial-and-error study

       In the case studies this term comes up occasionally and is used to refer to situations where a group of students have a big question to solve over a relatively long time, where they are encouraged to freely experiment with solutions and see what works, and what doesn’t, before assessing the relative merits of what they have tried, and then adapting and progressing. Such studies are designed to emulate real world research conditions.

    4. Turnitin

       College supported plagiarism detection software. Many departments use Turnitin for submission of software, often via a Blackboard login.

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