Students will be given a clear indication of the maximum length of a piece of assessed work to help them manage their time and work effort.
The workload may relate to word counts, time limits, page limits, etc. depending on the nature of the assessed task. Students should ensure their work does not exceed the set workload limit to enable appropriate time-on-task and to minimise excessive marking workloads for staff.
Module Assessment strategies will consider:
- The relevant workload for the associated module credit value as outlined in the Workload Equivalence Guide, to ensure equity and consistency of workload across courses.
- The appropriate scheduling of assessments. Summative Examinations may typically take place during the dedicated examination period, but other forms of assessment should be distributed across the module duration to avoid bunching of deadlines.
Requirements in relation to the length of a piece of assessed work will be defined within module handbooks. Requirements should be expressed in the unit most appropriate to the learning outcomes of the module e.g., word count, number of pages, duration of recording / video, etc.
Clear instructions in relation to requirements, including e.g., timings, font size, spacing, margins and what is included / excluded from calculations must be provided in the assessment brief and care should be taken to ensure these instructions are unambiguous and easily understood.
Guidance on assessment limits and word counts should also be explicit about words or any other elements excluded from the count. Course teams will agree on elements to be excluded from the count, as appropriate for the discipline area and the nature of the assessed task.
This holistic approach will help to ensure consistency and clarity for students. An example of elements that may be excluded from the count are as follows:
- Title
- Content pages
- Headers and footers
- Reference list/bibliography
- AI log
- Appendices
- Tables, graphs, diagrams
- Title sequence/credits
- abstracts
Due to variations in assessment design, where excluded word limit components within a given assessed task vary from the standard identified by the wider course team, the module coordinator must make this variation explicit within the module handbook and associated assessment brief.
As directed through module handbooks, students will be responsible for declaring the word count/workload limit on their submitted work and in accordance with the assessment brief.
Disciplinary procedures due to Academic Misconduct may be invoked if the word count/workload has been deliberately and significantly falsified.
Word counts can be verified through Blackboard Annotate, Turnitin, or by word-processing software.
Exceeding Assessment Limits
Marking rubrics will typically incorporate criteria relating to the structural and procedural expectations for a piece of coursework. Where submitted work does not meet the required standard expected of a given grade boundary then marks will be deducted through the application of the rubric grading scheme.
Coursework that falls significantly below the prescribed work limit will not generate a specific penalty as there is an inherent risk of students self-penalising due to insufficient evidence of meeting the assessment criteria. Marking criteria will identify the level of performance and will allocate marks accordingly.
Where submitted work exceeds the agreed assessment limit, a margin of up to +10% of the work limit will be allowed without any penalty of mark deduction.
If the work submitted is significantly in excess of the specified limit (+10%), there is no expectation that staff will assess the piece beyond the limit or provide feedback on work beyond this point. Markers will indicate the point at which the limit is reached and where they have stopped marking. A mark will be awarded only for the content submitted up to this point. No additional deduction or penalty will be applied to the overall mark awarded. The student is self-penalising as work will not be considered/marked.