Since April 2020 Warwick's homegrown Alternative Examinations Portal (AEP) online assessment system has been in action supporting our many online exams. Work then began on looking for a permanent online assessment system, which will bring full assessment functionality within one system and offer enhanced experience for students and diverse assessment opportunities.

The new 'Warwick Assessment System' (WAS) is delivered by a company called UniWise and offers a secure cloud-based assessment platform created for the university sector. The system was piloted from April to June 2022 with a small selection of departments for Phase 1 to try out a range of different types of:

• departments
• modes of assessment

The aim of Phase 1 was to get the system up and running as quickly as possible to be able to run some live assessment and exams, and explore the functionality and capabilities of the system within the Warwick setting, whilst gathering understanding about the levels of support that will be required for a fuller roll out.

Key findings of Phase 1:

• The system works well for online exams and has improved functionality over AEP
• Departments were able to administer their own exams in the system
• The system provides enhanced marking tools
• The system is robust and designed to handle large numbers of students and exams

The next phase of the roll out will seek to directly replace AEP for assessments usually uploaded in PDF format, from the Summer session in the 2022/23 academic year. This will then allow the decommissioning of AEP at the end of 2023, all being well. All departments currently using AEP will need to have moved across to the new system for the 2023/24 exam season.

Essential work is being carried out between now and Spring 2023 to integrate WAS with SITS and Tabula to ensure full functionality for the Phase 2 departments.

All departments currently using AEP or any other system for straightforward PDF upload have been invited to start using WAS, and discussions are underway to confirm the moves that will take place in 22/23 and those that will come onboard in 23/24.

Another piece of work that has been initiated from feedback from academic departments and students is to investigate 'online-on campus/in person' exams and our capacity to offer this across the board in various ways. We will report back on findings at the earliest opportunity.

Once your department is onboard using WAS you will also have access to the staging version, which will allow you to explore the full range of functionality the system can offer, and which will be available to use from 23/24 onwards.

You can read more about the system on the Wiseflow websiteLink opens in a new window.

If you have any questions, do contact the team.