Despite various challenges in 2020 due to the national lockdown and Covid-19 pandemic, the North-West University (NWU) is celebrating yet another teaching and learning milestone for itself. It is moving student assessment to a new online platform.

Lecturers officially started using the new Cirrus e-assessment platform on 1 October, enabling them to assess students in an online environment. This follows after a process that first began more than a year ago, when the NWU started investigating new possibilities for online assessment.

Between February and September this year, a task team, consisting of representatives from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, IT department, Unit for Open Distance Learning, Unit for Continuing Education and all the NWU’s faculties, considered various assessment platforms that are available locally and internationally. Potential platforms were tested during the lockdown period with the aim of fully integrating the most promising platform – once it has met all the university’s requirements – by January 2022.

“Students sometimes dread exams and assessments. We believe that with the new e-assessment platform, assessments will be more of an enjoyable learning opportunity than a perceived nightmare experience for them,” says Prof Herman van der Merwe, deputy dean for teaching and learning in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

“We believe this is just the beginning of great things and many further developments in electronic assessment at the NWU,” says Prof Herman, who leads the task team responsible for the implementation of the Cirrus platform.

He says the NWU is especially excited about the initial seamless integration of the platform with systems such as eFundi, our learning management system. The new platform will be adapted to ensure that it integrates well with the university’s systems.

Feedback from staff has been very positive so far. The new platform offers various benefits to lecturers, who will, for instance, be able to access analytical data about tests and quizzes with the click of a button.

“They can now also incorporate numerical and IT questions, something that was previously difficult to do in an online test or exam.”

Cloud-based Cirrus bursts with possibilities

The Cirrus platform was found to offer various alternative question types and the best support during the testing period. It was also the standout solution for meeting the specific teaching and learning requirements of the NWU.

“It enables assessor annotations, tailored review opportunities, a degree of assessment security monitoring and a level of student analytical reports, as well as a complex range of assessment tools,” says Prof Herman. “The platform is cost-effective and the continued support we receive is excellent.”

He says that, moving forward, the Centre for Teaching and Learning will be the first level of support in training lecturers to do effective e-assessments.

The Cirrus platform is another step in taking the NWU into the future and using the best available technology to provide more opportunities for staff and a better learning experience for students.

A seamless, well-suited experience

Prof Robert Balfour, deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning, says using the Cirrus platform will be a seamless experience for students in terms of assessment types. It is also well suited to the NWU’s approach of continuous assessment, the value of which has been strongly highlighted throughout the period of the Covid-19 state of disaster.

“The advantages extend well beyond the Covid-19 crisis, however, and will enable the NWU to further explore the possibilities of an online assessment monitoring solution, enabling students to participate in exam-type experiences, whether they are on campus or working from remote locations.”

Technology at our fingertips

The Cirrus platform is not the first technological innovation for the NWU in the sphere of teaching and learning. The university started with the Work-Integrated Service-learning System (WISL) initiative in 2019.

The main purpose of this integrated system is to automate and effectively manage the placement of students with service providers so that they can gain the practical or work experience they need to qualify for specific qualifications.

More about the platform

The Cirrus platform was developed by Cirrus in the Netherlands. It has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States of America and partners in Australia and South Africa.

It is a modern, safe and intuitive platform that provides a future-proofed solution to meet the NWU’s key assessment requirements.

The platform is managed by Amazon Web Services, guaranteeing the safety of data.

Prof Herman van der Merwe has been a champion of electronic assessment at the NWU.