Sub-doctoral research examination guide (30-80 point)

This guide describes the setup procedure for participants in the examination of sub-doctoral 30-80 point research components.

On this page

1. Key data collection
2. Canvas course and assignment creation
3. Extension—how to adjust the due date
4. Nomination of examiner/assessor—if not already provided in ‘key data collection (step 1)’
5. Academic head—approval of examiner and assessor

• Support
• See also

This document describes the examination process (replacing AS-512T) that has been adopted by:

• Faculty of Arts and Education
• Faculty of Engineering and Design

Others may follow. Please check with the Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) for the process observed by your faculty.

This process involves:

• Identifying the data of students who are ready to submit their research assignment
• Nominating the examiner and assessor
• Student submission of research
• Examining/assessing the research
• Recommending a mark
• Approving the mark
• Adding the final grade to the student record in Student Services Online (SSO)

Note: It is critical for strict adherence to the process to comply with regulations and guidelines set by the University.

IMPORTANT: The following procedure runs via automations. Adding or editing people into Canvas manually (such as students, supervisors, examiners, assessors, graduate advisors, or associate deans or their nominees) means that the automations will NOT run as expected. If you have any questions or need to assign someone else to a previously assigned role, please submit a support ticket with the Digital Services team.

Six weeks prior to end of semester the research assessment is due. Administrators: Group Services administrators (GSAs), sub-doctoral research coordinators (SDRCs), or their equivalent need to provide a spreadsheet to the Digital Services team with the required data to allow for course and assignment setup in Canvas.

• Student name and ID – required
• Associated Canvas course number – required
• Assignment due date – required
• Supervisor name, email and UPI – required
• Graduate advisor (GA) name, email and username/UPI* – required
• Administrator name, email and username/UPI* – required
• Examiner name, email and username/UPI* – if known
• Assessor name, email and username/UPI* – if known

* UPI means Unique Personal Identifier, e.g., (jsmi123).

This example template shows data that must be provided in the correct format and order:

1. The automation creates one Canvas course section per student (maintaining a student’s privacy) in each designated Canvas course (as provided in ‘key data collection (step 1)’), and each section will include one student and one assignment called Final Research Assessment-UPI:

2. The assignment set-up automatically creates a ‘To do’ item in Canvas for each student. Administrators may choose to send an email to students indicating that the course is on their Canvas Dashboard and will be used for their final research assessment submission.
3. The main supervisor is also enrolled in the Canvas course automatically, along with the graduate advisor (GA), associate dean postgraduate taught (ADPGT) and designated administrator:

4. If the Canvas course has not previously been published, a generic research course template will be used to populate the course and it will be published and visible to students, along with their assignments:

5. The automation also publishes the data provided (via ‘key data collection (step 1)’) into a SharePoint list called ‘Examinations Sub-Doctoral Research – 512T_courses – All Items‘. This list allows administrators to view all students and their status in the sub-doctoral research examination process.

1. If an extension is approved, the administrator can go to ‘Assignments‘ [1] and the select ‘Edit‘ [2]:

2. In the ‘Assign Access‘ section, enter the new ‘Until‘ date and ‘Time‘ [1]:

3. The administrator must then submit a support ticket with the Digital Services team to apply the change in SharePoint.

If the examiner and/or assessor have NOT been provided in the ‘key data collection (step 1)’, the supervisor (nominator) receives an automated email with a link to the ‘Academic Heads Approval Form’.

1. The academic head will receive an approval request via email with an ‘Approve‘ button:

2. Once approved this will change the status of the ‘Examinations Sub-Doctoral Research’ list in SharePoint from ‘Waiting for Examination Details‘ to ‘Waiting for Student Submission‘:

3. Once approved by the academic head, the examiner will be automatically enrolled in the Canvas course section associated with the student.

Note: If the academic head does not approve of the examiner or assessor selection, they will need to communicate this to their faculty administrator by email. Once a new selection is approved, the administrator will need to submit a support ticket with the Digital Services team to apply the change.

If you have any questions, please raise a ticket with the team at Digital Services.