Reducing Deadline Stacking Recommendations

Hey everyone! I’ve got a little update on Deadline Stacking for you!

Over the summer I brought together all existing research on deadline stacking and the impact it has on you, along with identifying some best practices from across the University. All of which, coupled with some of Matthew’s recommendations from last year, culminated in my “REDUCING DEADLINE STACKING RECOMMENDATIONS”:

I explained Priority 8, and why reducing deadline stacking is so important. Citing the external pressures students face and the cost of living necessitating the uptake of parttime work.

After breaking down the research behind this priority, I laid out some best practices from across the University, such as the Business School providing provisional deadlines alongside optional module booklets and the Music Department manually reviewing all module deadlines at the start of the year to identify and resolve "pinch points" of bunching.

Now, to the recommendations. From a shorter-term approach:

1. Deadline reports: Consolidate all deadlines for your department into a single document allowing for identification and resolution of excessive stacking.
2. Timely release of briefs: Departments should release full assessment briefs at least 4-6 weeks before the deadline to allow students to begin independent work early.
3. Moodle Standardisation: Implement a uniform "Assessment" block on all Moodle pages with simple, clear descriptions and links to rubrics.
4. Support Signposting: The University and Students’ Union should co-create a clear "Personal Tutor" landing page on the Intranet and a student-friendly guide explaining how they can assist with workload management.
5. Assessment Safety Net: Create an "Assessment Safety Net" guide that explains how extensions can be used.
6. Induction Integration: Move some assessment workshops into the Welcome/Induction period to ensure students understand the "Assessment Safety Net" before deadlines arrive.

And looking forward to next term/year:

1. Module Booklet integration: Following the example of the Economics Department and the Business school, Departments should publish assessment dates in module booklets (figure 3).
2. Visualisation tool: Develop a digital dashboard that pulls data from Moodle to provide students with a visual timeline of their specific academic year, including formative and summative deadlines.
3. ‘Deadline Stacking Extension’: Implement a new policy where students facing two or more summative deadlines (including 23-hour exams) within a 48-hour window are automatically eligible for a specific ‘Deadline stacking extension’. Allowing students to keep their existing extensions for emergency situations, rather than having to use them to mitigate stacking.
    

Going forward I will be working with the Faculty Deans and Associate Deans of Education to get as many of these implemented as possible.

It’s important to note that to ensure you can continue to enjoy a range of options in your courses, there will be some level of bunching but with these recommendations it will be minimised and make it easier for you to manage.