ICE Activities | vcm-lec-orientation

What is ICE?

Integrated Curriculum Engagement (ICE) is made up of a variety of tasks to be completed by students before, during or after lectures as part of continuous assessment and should be meaningful and purposeful.

Why ICE?

ICE activities are included in a course to enable students to engage with their learning and assess their own progress. Through ICE, students will be encouraged to apply the knowledge that you have taught them in class. It enables you as the lecturer to their progress and apply support where needed.

Important information regarding ICE

All modules in full qualifications, regardless of discipline and mode of delivery of the programme, will include ICE as part of the formative assessment process;
All students – irrespective of whether or not they are repeating a module or suspended from attending classes for whatever reason are required to complete at least four ICE tasks assigned to that module;
There should be a minimum of 6 ICE tasks for each module, three not assessed and three assessed of which students must complete at least four, but there could be more;
ICE contributes to CASS a maximum of 10% of the final mark of a module offered in the contact mode and 5% of a module offered in the distance mode;
In contact programmes half of the 10% (5%) is based on marks allocated for assessed ICE tasks (a minimum of 2 from a minimum of 3 opportunities). Assessed tasks cannot depend on attendance in class in order for them to be completed and must be tasks students can complete out of class time.
At least 2 of the ICE tasks, regardless of how many a lecturer carries out in a module must be marked against pre-determined criteria. The marking does not all have to be done by the lecturers and can include some online assessments, peer-marking or self-assessment. etc.;
Any student not attempting and submitting at least two of these tasks will get a mark of 0% for the 5% allocated for assessed tasks;
The other 5% in contact programmes and the 5% in distance programmes is awarded for students who have attempted tasks irrespective of the quality of that attempt (it is a simple incentive for participation). In the case of the non-assessed task not attempting the task will reduce the portion of the 5% allocated to “attempted tasks” on a proportional basis. At least two of the non-assessed talks must be completed by the student from a minimum of three offered tasks. If only 1 is attempted the student will only receive 2,5% towards their CASS. If none are attempted the student will receive 0% of the potential 5%;
ICE tasks should be spread across the module to ensure that there are several opportunities for students to receive real formative feedback on their comprehension and progress;
Lecturers’ design their own ICE activities based on the learning needs and context of their students and should not, beyond these parameters, be constrained in what they do;
ICE is quality assured by the campus and national brand academic teams – and the processes are audited during PULSE visits or at the request of the Head of Institute or Academic Manager from CAT;
ICE activities (which may be online if appropriate) range from quizzes to debates to mini tests to presentations to participation in surveys or responses to blogs etc. The nature of the activity is determined by the objectives to be achieved, the learning needs of the group and the mode of delivery of the qualification/ module and the practical circumstances of the students and campus.
Students registered in the distance mode are also required to complete ICE tasks – when these are done on line, they may be referred to as On-Line Engagements (OLE).

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO ICE

An ICE task cannot be limited to in class discussion only and must lend itself to a student being able to complete an ICE task before during or after class.
ICE tasks should not be used to ‘catch out’ or ‘punish’ students who do not attend class. ICE marks can often make the difference between a student getting exam entrance or not. PLEASE help your students to achieve good ICE marks, we want them to improve their results and succeed.
The attendance issue comes in when a student is not in class to receive the ICE task or to submit the ICE task. The discussion may add value to the submission of the task however a student should be able to submit the task without having been present for the discussion after class on the said due date.
The due date is not negotiable once set by the lecturer. Should a student miss a due date, he has in essence missed one opportunity out of his 6 opportunities to submit of which he requires 4.
Due dates for submission should be communicated to students at the start of the module These dates should not change and any student who has not adhered to the due date will receive zero bearing in mind a student may only need 4 of the 6.
A mark sheet will be provided to a lecturer at the start of the module and as ICE tasks are due and marks captured by the lecturer, these must be submitted to the AOC as an assessment point complete.
After the last task a complete mark sheet must be handed in to the AOC indicating the total mark for ICE which will then be captured into SAM Admin by the AOA.

Examples of ICE activities