The digital PoE for the 2022/23 academic year has 4 sections. These sections are sequential; this means that the sections need to be completed in the order that they appear in the PoE and that one section needs to be completed before a student can move onto the next. The sections are as follows;


Chrome


Chrome is the default browser for working on the PoE. Chrome needs to be installed on the computer you are working on and used to access the PoE so that the full functionality of the PoE is available. Any other browser will not allow the full completion of the various tasks on the PoE.

                                                                           


MACCI Registration


All portfolios for the 2022/2023 academic year are digital and must be completed on the MACCI platform.


Providers and students will need a unique email address and password in order to access MACCI. These details are captured when registering on MACCI.


Self-study students: the payment needs to reflect before access to MACCI is granted.


Students registered through a college: immediate access to MACCI is granted.



Course Overview


The course a student is registered for will appear at the top of the screen when a student logs into MACCI. Below the name of the course is a menu indicating the different stages of the PoE to be completed. Each stage of the PoE contains specific instructions which the student needs to follow. The nature of the PoE means that the stages are sequential; ie: a student is required to complete one section of the PoE before being able to move onto the next stage.




PoE Sections


SECTION A:  Orientation & Course Admin

 

Admin activities

The PoE starts with a series of Admin Activities. These activities contain important information that all students need to be aware of and agree to. The agreement is signalled by the student ticking the box in each section. In agreeing to the information, students indicate that they have understood the information and that they will uphold the integrity of the ICB assessments (assignments, tests and exams). 


Students start with the PoE by clicking on "Welcome and Introduction". A reminder that each step needs to be completed before it is possible to move on to the next.



 


Practice Questions


Students need to complete a series of practice questions at the start of the PoE. The structure of these questions is to prepare students for the questions that will come up in the assignments and tests in the PoE. For example, there will be multiple choice questions, drag-and-drop questions and writing questions. It is important that students ensure that they can answer all types of questions.




ID Verification


There is a new section to the PoE and that is the ID Verification process. This only needs to be completed once but a student will not be able to progress with the PoE until the ID Verification is complete.


Students need to upload a colour head-and-shoulders photograph of themselves. The photograph may not contain anyone other than the student; the student may not wear a cap, hat, beanie, sunglasses or anything that obscures the face in any way.


In addition to the photograph, students need to upload a copy of their ID.


Once the photograph and copy of the ID have been uploaded, a member of the ICB team will complete the verification process. Students will receive a pop-up on the PoE to alert the student once the process is complete and that they can now move on to the next section of the PoE.




SECTION B: Formatives


There are three learning phases in the PoE. Each learning phase contains an assignment that needs to be completed. Assignments one and two are done online. Assignment three needs to be downloaded, completed offline and uploaded as a single .PDF document once it is complete.


In addition to the three assignments, there are two tests. The tests are part of learning phases one and two. The tests are completed online.



In learning phases one and two, the assignments and tests are auto-marked. This means that the students will receive immediate feedback on their performance once the online assessment has been submitted (there is a "submit" button at the end of each activity).


The assignments do not have a time-limit but need to be completed in a single login; ie: a student cannot begin an assignment, log out and then log in again to carry on with the assignment.  In contrast, the tests have a time-limit of one hour. The timer starts once the student commences with the test; the timer cannot be stopped or reset and the student may not log out and then log in again to complete the test.


A pop-up will appear asking the student if he/she wants to start the test. At this point, the student may cancel the test but the test cannot be cancelled once it has begun.


The questions in the test are quiz-type. On the left-hand side of the screen are the question numbers and on the right-hand side are the questions.



As the students progress through the questions, the question numbers will change colour. A grey block indicates that a question has been answered; partially answered questions will have a red triangle; the green block will indicate which questions are currently being displayed on the screen; blocks with no colour indicate questions that are unanswered. Students can move between the questions during the test; ie: the questions do not need to be answered in the order that they appear.



At the end of the test, the students will receive immediate feedback on their performance. The feedback is colour-coded for ease of understanding. A green box with a tick indicates a correct answer; a yellow block with a circle indicates where an answer is partially correct; a red box indicates an incorrect answer.



In addition, there will be a report for the student that gives the date, time, duration, the number of questions correctly answered and a final percentage achieved for the test. Test 1 and Test 2 both have two (2) attempts. The 2nd attempt has been put in place in case students experience problems during the first attempt including power outages etc. Students who make use of the 2nd attempt for whatever reason must be aware that the results from the 2nd attempt will be taken as your final grade, regardless of whether or not you scored lower in your 2nd attempt and regardless of whether or not you experienced an error in your 2nd attempt.



As mentioned, assignment three is different from assignments one and two in that it is completed offline. The assignment question needs to be downloaded from the PoE. The assignment is then completed offline (ie: it is written on paper). The completed assignment needs to be scanned and uploaded as a single .PDF document to the PoE.



All of the instructions for the assignment are contained in the assignment document as well as in the PoE itself.



Once the assignment has been uploaded, students will need to tick the declaration at the top of the page before clicking on the "Save Changes" button in order to submit the assignment for marking. The  marking takes place offline and students will receive feedback on the assignment once the entire PoE (including the exam) has been marked.




SECTION C: Exam Preparation


The exam preparation section is available to both online and paper exam students, however, this section will look different for a paper exam student compared to that of an online exam student


Paper exam - Students will complete the Paper Exam Pre-Check and read the Paper Exam Preparation and Instructions

Online exam - Students must read the Exam Preparation Instructions and Setup and Exam Day information. Thereafter online exam students will also be required to complete the Technical System Pre-checks and Online Exam Preparation Quiz. The pre-check must be completed on the same device that will be used for writing the online exam. Students must allow themselves enough time to complete the quiz and they need to pass the preparation quiz with a grade of 100% in order to complete this section in full.



SECTION D: Summative/Final Exam

 

This section is only available to students writing online exams and not students writing paper exams. Section D is where students access their online exam room therefore students wiring a paper exam will not have access to this section as they receive their online exam question papers and answer books at their designated exam venue. Section D includes a;


Online Exam Room Access -  this is the final exam for each module / subject. When a student has chosen to do an online exam, this is part of the PoE as it appears online. It is important to remember that students who have been disqualified from the exam due to failure to complete their PoE in full AND by the PoE due date will NOT have access to this section as they will not be allowed access to the online exam. 


Post-exam feedback - this is a compulsory activity that must be completed by the end of your online exam day (Midnight).  It contains questions regarding your exam experience.


Course Completion


Students are able to see their completion status for the module/subject on the Completion Checklist. This is done by monitoring the completion checklist which is found at the very top of each PoE.   It has a progress bar with the % completion, and a check list of all items that need to be completed.  

Here is an example of an incomplete PoE:


Due Date


For the 2022/23 Academic Year, the entire PoE (including the ID verification, technical checks, assignments, tests, admin sections and preparation quiz) must be completed and submitted by the PoE due date that is published on the ICB timetable. 


Exam Access/Qualification

Both paper and online exam students must have fully completed their PoE AND by the PoE due date in order to qualify for an entry/access to write an online or paper exam. Students that have not met this required will be automatically disqualified and will be required to re-book the exam at their own cost.