Track E - The Traditional Dissertation in Biomedical Sciences

The Traditional Dissertation in Biomedical Sciences: Not Broken, But How Can We Improve It? Dr Paula Bernaschina, Rosemary Clyne and Martin Rooke, Middlesex University Learner Development Unit, Library and Student Support and the School of Science and Technology

The Biomedical Science Dissertation workshop was facilitated by Rosemary Clyne (Module Leader), Martin Rooke (Graduate Teaching Assistant) and Paula Bernaschina (Academic Writing and Language Support Lecturer).

Although ‘69% of the students enjoyed the dissertation module’ and ‘75% felt it allowed them to express themselves academically’ overall students did less well in the dissertation than a 3rd year writing task. The workshop centred on addressing this problem.

The workshop participants were asked to come up with ideas on the following questions:

• What is the best procedure for communicating final agreed grades and feedback to students?
• How can the Academic Writing and Language (AWL) lecturers help you and your students?
• How should the dissertation module for biomedical science be improved?

The session succeeded in engaging the participants to question current practice and brainstorm to come up with ideas that could lead to improvement.

One of the interesting discussions centred on transparency in marking. With transparency in mind it had been decided to share grades from both 1st and 2nd markers with students. However, comparison of 1st and 2nd marker grades showed a tendency of 1st markers (the academic supervisors) to consistently award higher grades than the 2nd Markers.  As grades awarded by 1st and 2nd markers differed participants felt this could lead to a rise in student appeals and hence thought sharing both grades was a little too transparent.  

To view the slides click here