Assessments

Jon Reades - j.reades@ucl.ac.uk

1st October 2025

The Assessments

  1. Open-Book Exam (30%)
  2. Group Work
    • Content (35%)
    • Code (25%)
  3. Peer Evaluation (10%)

Assessment #1

What is it?

Timed, Open Book Exam

  • Timed: once you start the assessment you will have a fixed amount of time in which to complete it; 1h 20m for most students, but students with relevant SORAs have 2 hours (please email me).
  • Open Book: You may look at any resource you like, you may not ask another human being for assistance. You may use ChatGPT or another LLM but must report when you do.

When is it?

  • Friday, 21 November 2025 from either 11am-11pm or 1pm-3pm1

Where is it?

  • You will access your questions through Moodle. You can write the code that you need to answer the question in JupyterLab or any other Python programming environment.

What is covered?

  • Any concept up to and including Week 5 is ‘fair game’. The exam will consist of no more than 10 questions.2

How is it graded?

  • We will manually grade it in Moodle. There are roughly 960 answers so we may make some mistakes and you can flag these where it is clear this has happened.

Why should I report ChatGPT?

  • The use of ChatGPT has no impact on your grade, we are primarily curious about how useful people are finding it and whether LLMs affect your understanding.

Assessment #2

Overview

The reproducible analysis and briefing will be developed as part of a group and has two components:

  1. The content (35%, submitted as a PDF file): how do the answers written by the group engage with the set questions through a mix of literature, critical thinking, and data analysis?
  2. The code (25%, submitted as a QMD file): how well does the group’s code transfer to a ‘clean’ environment on a different computer?

These are submitted separately to two separate submission areas. Only one person needs to submit on behalf of the group.

In-Class Feedback

Because the format is novel, and also entails using Quarto, starting in Week 7, groups will be randomly selected to present their (draft) answer to that week’s question in class.

  • Formative feedback will be provided in class on the quality of the response.
  • If the selected group has not prepared an answer then no formative feedback will be provided for that question.

This is intended to ensure that: a) you are doing the thinking and reading to progress towards submission; and b) you are learning how to use Quarto.

Resources

Assessment #3

Overview

We know that people contribute differently to groups or, sometimes, not at all. This self- and peer-assessment seeks to quantify that contribution while also prompting you to reflect on what you contributed to your group and the wider dynamics of working as part of a team.

  • You will self-assess your own contribution to the group through a brief narrative.
  • You will then score everyone else’s self-assessment and provide short feedback.

This assessment should not take more than 30 minutes in total, but it has to be done in two parts.

When is it due?

  • Part 1: Thursday, 11 December 2025 @ 10:00
  • Part 2: Tuesday, 16 December 2025 @ 12:00

Where do I access it?

How does it work?

  • Complete a self-evaluation first.1
  • Come back after the group submission to complete the peer-evaluation.2

Time to Organise!

You are aiming for a group of four:

  • If you are in a group of less than four you may be partnered with students in another practical session to make a ‘full strength’ group of up to five.
  • In this case, you can ask to be reallocated to a mutually convenient practical session so that you are not penalised by being unable to work together.
  • I would encourage you to start sitting and working together, and for one of you to set up and share a private GitHub repo for Assessment #2 (more on this in a second).

And remember: talk about how you want your group to work! See: Group Working talk.1

Questions?

References