Evaluating the effectiveness and student experience of using plug-in tablets as part of robust online assessment

Project leader(s):  Becca Whitehead Gemma Warriner

• Theme:  Innovative assessment
• Project faculties:  STEM
• Status:  Current
• Date:  February 2026 to January 2027

Our assessment is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the use of Generative AI to answer questions, rather than the students themselves. We aim to investigate the possibility of online assessment via a verbal one-to-one discussion. As part of this we will equip both tutors and students with plug-in tablets to increase the range of scientific and mathematical work that can be assessed, and the functionality of these tablets will also be investigated. We have completed phase 1 of our project, a trial of the use of the tablets with 6 associate lecturers, playing the roles of both tutors and students. We aim to complete two more phases over the next two academic years, initially on one module with 20 students, then with 2 modules and 80 students (phases 2 and 3). After each phase we intend to evaluate the success of the sessions for both students and tutors, via survey questions. We are interested in both the functionality and need for the tablet, and the student experience.