Higher Education achievement report (HEAR)
JISC is helping to support the technical innovation and interoperability aspects of the piloting of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). The HEAR is intended to provide a single comprehensive record of a learner’s achievement at a higher education institution. It will be an electronic document, which will adhere to a common structure and be verified by the academic registrar or equivalent officer. Institutions may also choose to issue a paper document.
30 institutions are currently taking part in a pilot of the HEAR, managed by the Higher Education Academy and the Centre for Recording Achievement, and their experiences are informing the planning for its wider introduction. Initially the HEAR will apply to undergraduate students, although it may be widened out to other levels in due course.
The HEAR contains information identifying the holder of the qualification, and information on the institution and the national higher education system. It includes information on the qualification, its level, and details of each of the modules or units studied, the form of assessment (timed examination, essay, project, dissertation etc), marks awarded, and their relative weighting towards the final summary mark or grade. It also includes information on activities carried out by the student which do not carry credit towards their award, but which can be verified by the institution. This includes prizes, volunteering, widening participation activities, additional study (eg languages), etc.
Most of the information required for the HEAR will be in existing institutional, faculty and departmental records, though it may not be collated into a single location. Institutions will need to ensure that they can store and access historical information, such as achievement on programmes and modules that have been revised or are no longer running. Information on additional and non-credit-bearing activities may not currently be collected or verified, so new processes will need to be put in place if this information is to be included.
Many institutions will wish to integrate electronic systems and human-centred processes to allow all the relevant information to be collated into one or more central systems, usually the Student Records System. These systems will therefore need to contain the necessary data fields and be able to output appropriate information.
HEAR readiness self-assessment framework
JISC has funded the development of a HEAR readiness self-assessment framework, which aims to help institutions both within and beyond the trial cohort to understand and plan for the changes to strategies, policies, systems and processes which will support the production of the HEAR.
See the framework
Technical specification
A draft technical specification for the HEAR has been produced and has fed into a proposed CEN European Learner Mobility Achievement Information standard, which is expected to be ratified in the second half of 2010. This provides the basis for a specification for the Europass Diploma Supplement. Based on this specification, work is taking place over the next 6-12 months with UK student records systems vendors and other interested parties to develop a standard XML data format for HEAR documents that will support interoperability of achievement information between systems.
Once an electronic HEAR has been produced for every learner, they will need to be stored in such a way that they can be accessed securely by individual learners and on request distributed to and verified for third parties such as employers, recruitment agencies or other education institutions. Several models for the distribution architecture and access management have been proposed for institutions and vendors to consider. Different models are likely to work for different institutions, but there is clearly potential for some shared services in this area.
Technical pilot: Electronic transcript and recruitment services
A technical pilot has been completed by Swansea University to demonstrate how the electronic HE transcript element of the HEAR can be produced from an existing student record system using web services. Electronic transcripts were issued for all current and graduated Swansea students. In addition, on request by the student, the structured electronic transcript can be uploaded into a recruitment engine which enables employers to target students who fit their desired employment profile. The transcript data is presented as verified by the institution, and is supplemented by unverified student-provided information. Although only one approach, this is a demonstration of how the verified transcript could start helping employers use richer information on students’ academic achievements during recruitment.
Download the report
The ways in which the HEAR might be linked to the MIAP personal learning record and to HESA data collection are currently being explored.