Overview: Assessment
Key information about UCIL26002 assessment
Introduction
As a student taking Digital Society (UCIL26002), you are required to submit three pieces of coursework for assessment: digisoc1, digisoc2 and digisoc3. Your marks for these will determine your final mark.
The aim of the assessments is to help you to explore your relationship with ‘digital society’ and the implications of living in an increasingly digital world. In addition, to help you to develop throughout the unit, you will complete non-assessed (formative) work for each topic.
This page focuses on the assessed coursework.
Planning your work
We have prepared a sample study plan for the unit, including when you might work on each assessment. You can find this on Overview: Course timeline
Rules and regulations
- Late submissions will result in deductions in line with University policy (section 4.9): a deduction of 10% of the maximum marks available per 24 hour period after the deadline. Our advice: Publish your work as early as you can, then edit and update it as much as you like until the deadline.
- Extensions may be granted following mitigating circumstances requests in line with University policy (see also this quick guide). Our advice: If anything unexpected happens, talk to your School/UCIL about mitigating circumstances as soon as you can.
- Automatic extensions may be in place for students registered with the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) in line with University policy. Our advice: Read about DASS see what support may be available.
- Word counts are in place to make assessment and marking fairer. If you write more than 10% over the word count (in line with University guidance), the assessor will stop reading, which may result in a lower mark. If you write significantly less than the word count, it is likely that you will cover less, which may result in a lower mark. Our advice: Aim for the word count, and ensure that you don’t go more than 10% over it.
- The University uses electronic systems including TurnitinUK for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice and for marking. As part of the assessment process, your coursework will be submitted on your behalf to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University, which may result in it being copied and stored in a database to allow appropriate checks to be made. Our advice: You should understand what academic malpractice is, so that you can ensure you follow good practice. Read the University guidance, which was updated in 2019, and work through Avoiding Plagiarism from My Learning Essentials.
If in doubt, contact the tutors (see Blackboard) as soon as possible for advice.
Assessment format
All three assessments are written as blog posts. You must share these publicly on Medium with the tags digisoc1, digisoc2 and digisoc3 respectively and submit to the Digital Society publication, so that your work becomes part of the course materials. You must then submit an anonymised PDF of your work to Turnitin via Blackboard. Full instructions for submission.
You can edit your posts until their submission deadlines, but you must not edit, delete or unpublish your work between the deadline and the end of the unit. This is to allow your work to be marked and viewed by others.
You can access digisoc1, digisoc2 and digisoc3 submissions from students who have taken the course in previous years. They cover a wide range of topics and may inspire you in your assessment choices. You are welcome to view the submissions and we encourage you to refer to them. If you do refer to them in your work make sure you reference appropriately.
Prepare to submit to Medium
⚠️ Important: So that we can assess your work, you must create a Medium account and associate it with your Manchester username.
- Create an account: click Sign in/sign up (top right of this page). Full instructions: Sign up for Medium. You can sign up using email, Twitter, Facebook or Google. If you use Twitter/Facebook/Google, this will link your accounts; consider whether you want to do this.
- Associate your account: in UCIL26002 in Blackboard, click Assessment, and follow the instructions. There’s a GIF showing you how to do it. Any problems, contact the tutors (see Blackboard).
- We will then invite you to be a Writer for Digital Society on Medium. This allows you to submit your coursework to appear as part of this publication. You can submit any of your writing (not just assessment) to Digital Society during and after the course, we encourage you to do this.
- We recommend that you do this as soon as possible, and check that you are able to submit to the publication before publishing any assessed work, in case you have any problems or questions.
- When submitting work, follow the full instructions for submission.
What is being assessed
Together, the three pieces of coursework are your opportunity to demonstrate that you have met the five learning outcomes of the unit. Each assessment covers a different set of learning outcomes and has two sets of marking criteria, based on the learning outcomes.
The assessment panel will grade your work against the marking criteria and this will determine your final mark and feedback. You can read about the learning outcomes and marking criteria in the links below.
We have spaced out the coursework, starting with a lower weighting, so that you can learn from feedback from digisoc1 and digisoc2 before the final submission, digisoc3. We strongly recommend you read your feedback and ask any questions you may have, so that you can use it to develop.
You can find detailed information on completing the assessments on the following pages including the learning outcomes and marking criteria.
How to complete the first assessment: digisoc1
What next?
Now that you have read this post, you should know a bit about the three assessments. Next, we suggest you read about your next assessment in detail, using the links above. If you are at the start of the course, read about digisoc1.
Please email digisoc@manchester.ac.uk with any questions or problems.
