Submitting your work

1. What do I need to submit?

1. A selection of learning log entries (or equivalent)
2. A selection of creative work
3. Any critical reviews, essays, or other written reports
4. A reflective presentation or evaluation 
5. Your tutor reports

Read the Understanding Assessment and Preparing your Submission sections for more details and guidance.

2. When do I submit

After you have completed your unit, you will be invited to submit for the next formal assessment event in the schedule. Remember, completion of your unit is defined as submitting all assignments to your tutor, and having received all tutor feedback reports. Check the Assessment Schedule section for the key dates of upcoming assessment events to see which event you will be invited to.

If you've been invited for assessment, but you have extenuating circumstances which mean that you will be unable to submit your work for assessment, you could apply to defer assessment to the following assessment event. See the Student Handbook for details on deferring assessment and how to apply.

When we have reached the cut off date for unit completions for a given assessment event, you will receive an email linking you to your GDrive folder via your OCA student email account, and a reminder of the deadline by which you need to submit.

Generally you will have a minimum of two weeks between receiving this email to the deadline for submission, so this should give you time to prepare, and get used to uploading your files. The sooner you complete your unit before an assessment event's cut off date, the more time you will have to prepare your submission, however you will still need to wait for the email linking you to your GDrive folder before you can submit.

If you become concerned that you do not have enough time to submit your work for assessment, inform the Assessment team by contacting: assessment@oca.ac.uk

If you fail to submit work for assessment when invited to do so, and have not been granted deferral of assessment, you will receive a fail for the unit and a mark of zero (0). You will then be offered a re-submission opportunity at the next assessment event. Full details on re-submissions can be found in the Academic Regulations.

Each assessment event has a submission deadline; this is the date by which you must have provided the coursework that you wish to be assessed. This is usually two to three weeks after you've been invited for assessment; see the Assessment Guidance for details. 

If you submit work after the submission date but within six days the mark that you receive at assessment is reduced by 10% for each day late the work down to 40% for undergraduate, and 50% for postgraduate but no further. 

If work is submitted more than seven days past the submission deadline and/or does not include all the required assessment components, submission will be refused and you would receive a mark of 0 for that unit. See the Academic Regulations for details.

3. How do I submit?

Depending on your course, you will either submit online through a GDrive folder, or directly through OCA Learn. Once you have applied for assessment, the Assessment Team will email you details of what to do, and links to your GDrive folder.

Currently only Music course units are submitting via OCA Learn.

3.1. Using GDrive to submit

GDrive is a file storage service developed by Google, which is freely available for all OCA students. GDrive folders have been used at previous assessments events, so many students will be familiar with how they work. Below is a step by step guide to submitting on GDrive:

1. You will receive an email invitation from the Assessment Team linking you to your own GDrive folder, held on the GDrive service. The folder will be accessible until the deadline for submissions. 
2. Use the link in this email invitation to access the folder. Alternatively, if you are more familiar with GDrive, you will find the folder listed under the ‘Shared with me’ section of GDrive. 
3. The title of the folder should include your name, student number, and the course unit you are submitting for assessment. If any of these details are incorrect, or you believe that you have been shared into an incorrect folder, please contact assessment@oca.ac.uk 
4. In your GDrive folder you will find a series of subfolders. These subfolders will relate to the elements you need to submit for your specific course. Into each of these subfolders, you can upload the relevant elements of your assessment submission, making your work navigable for yourself and the assessors. 
5. Once you have familiarised yourself with your GDrive folders you can begin uploading your work for assessment. Please access the Checklist document, available in your GDrive folder, to record what files you are submitting for assessment. 
6. Once you have completed uploading your files to the GDrive folders, use the checklist document to ensure that everything you need to upload is in the correct folder, that they are in accessible digital formats, and clearly labelled.

For technical support on using GDrive, you may want to look at this guidance from Google.

3.2. Using OCA Learn to submit

Currently only Music course units are submitting via OCA Learn.

A video walkthrough of how to upload your work via OCA Learn can be found here.

1. Before you begin uploading your files, we advise that you prepare an assessment folder in the file browser on your computer, or in GDrive and copy all of the files you plan to submit there. Check this against your assessment requirements and make sure that everything you need is included.
2. To submit your work, sign into OCA Learn.
3. Click on My Courses and select the course you will be submitting work for. If you cannot access the course you require, please contact your Programme Leader. 
4. Scroll down to the Assessment section at the bottom of the menu on the left hand side. Within the assessment section, you will find copies of the assessment guidelines and other information you may find helpful. 
5. At the bottom of the section there is an Assignment Task, named Summative Assessment Submission. Click on this and you will be taken to the upload page. Go to Add Submission. You will see a File Submissions box where you can upload your files. Underneath this is an Online Text box where you can type any relevant text, for example your list of signposted learning log posts or your reflective evaluation. 
6. Under the File Submission heading there are two icons. The icon on the left allows you to drag and drop individual files from your computer’s file browser or GDrive folder. The icon on the right allows you to create individual folders if you would like to organise the different elements of your submission. Once you have created a new folder, click on it to add files. 
7. Once you have uploaded your files, add any additional text you wish to include in the Online Text box below. 
8. When everything is in place, click on Save Changes. 
9.  On the next screen, look in the grey box on the right hand side to check everything is there. If anything is missing, you can add files as needed.

If you need help during the process, email techsupport@oca.ac.uk

3.3. For plagiarism checks

If you’re a Music student submitting your work for assessment through the OCA Learn VLE, you do not need to provide your work for plagiarism checks separately to your assessment submission as this check is carried out automatically.

If you're a student submitting your work for assessment through the GDrive service, you no longer need to provide your work for plagiarism checks separately to your assessment submission as we will carry out the check using the contents of your relevant subfolder/s from your assessment submission.

3.4. with Reasonable Adjustments

When a student has reasonable adjustments in place for their learning on a course unit, and the means of submission outlined in this guidance (GDrive service or OCA Learn) are not suitable, we will work with the student and Learner Support to make suitable adjustments to the submission process to allow for the assessment of work to take place.

Students with reasonable adjustments in place can contact both the Assessment Team - assessment@oca.ac.uk - and Learner Support Team - learnersupport@oca.ac.uk - together to discuss suitable adjustments.

4. What if I’m submitting more than one course unit?

If you are studying more than one course unit at the same time, it is essential that your work clearly belongs to only one unit. OCA student regulations state that students cannot present the same piece of work for assessment on two different units. This means clearly evidencing work across different course units, resolving any overlaps in course work, for example by tagging posts on a shared blog, and submitting work to two separate GDrive repository folders.

5. Planning your time

Whether you have been getting ready for assessment throughout your course or are just beginning the process now, here are some suggestions on how you can best utilise your time: 

1. Aim to have a two week period to prepare for assessment.
2. Check that you can access the GDrive folder sent to you (or access OCA Learn for Music courses). Don’t leave this until the last minute. There is still plenty of time to ask for help if there is a problem. 
3. Consider uploading a test document if you are not confident with GDrive and would like to practice. 
4. Undertake the exercises in the Preparing your submission resource. This will help you gather the assessment requirements you need to submit. 
5. Review the work you have produced and start to make a selection of creative work. It's useful to return to this process, so you have time to reflect on it. 
6. Refer to the learning outcomes to ensure your selection supports your choices. 
7. Work through the Critical reviews exercise. Only students at Higher Education Levels 5 and 6 are likely to have a Critical Review, however the points on referencing and word counts may be useful to any student with an essay or extended piece of writing within their course.
8. Now that you have considered your learning log entries and selection of creative work, undertake the Producing a reflective presentation or evaluation exercise. Re-read your tutor reports to help identify key moments in your learning to help you with your reflective presentation. Remember that you can do this as a video, which might make it easier, and allows you to try different versions. 
9. Check you are happy with your selection of work, and make any changes. 
10. If you have not been uploading as you go, submit your work to the GDrive folder (OCA Learn for Music courses). The larger your digital files, the slower it will take to upload. Different broadband providers supply different upload speeds and your location and IT equipment could also affect your service/access to it. Allow time for this activity. 
11. Once your work is uploaded, complete the Checklist document.