Whether you’re a first-year undergraduate student or a postgraduate student returning to study, you will be asked to complete many activities and quizzes to make sure that you’re prepared for university life. One of these activities is called OPELA, which stands for: Online Post-Enrolment Language Assessment. OPELA provides you with a snapshot of your level of academic language as you start university.
What does OPELA do?
It’s an online language screening task, which is designed to assess your level of Academic English language (not your level of everyday English language). There are 3 bands: Basic; Intermediate; Good. If your result is within the Basic band, UTS provides compulsory language development activities within your core subject to help you develop your academic and professional language in your disciplinary area (e.g. Business, Engineering, IT, Science…).
How does OPELA work?
OPELA has two types of tasks:
- Three text completion tasks, where you have to complete part of a missing word, and
- One speed reading task, where you have to highlight words that don’t belong in the sentence.
It’s online, via the UTS Learning Management System, Canvas. It takes about 40 minutes to complete and your results will be available immediately in MyStudentAdmin.
Where will I find it?
If you are required to complete OPELA as part of your subject requirements, it will be one of your subjects in Canvas.
Can I fail OPELA?
No. OPELA is not a pass/fail test. It’s a screening task to show you the level of academic language that you’re at, and to let you know that you might need to develop your academic language to succeed at university.
Is OPELA hard?
Well, it is a bit. It’s designed to assess people’s academic language from beginner to highly proficient, so lots of people find it quite challenging – and that includes academic staff! Very few people score full marks.
What happens if I don’t complete OPELA?
If OPELA is part of your subject requirements, then you will be expected to complete it within the first weeks of teaching session. If you don’t, you will be contacted by the OPELA team and advised of the consequences – which can include having your grade for that subject withheld. So if you want to avoid a lot of hassle, it’s best to complete OPELA – remember, it only takes 40 minutes.
What happens if I get a Basic band?
If you get a Basic band, you will be enrolled into Language Development Tutorials, which are designed to help you with your assessment tasks in the subject you are enrolled in. The tutorials are additional to your subject tutorials, and run from Week 3/4 to Week 11/12 of teaching session. Attendance is compulsory, but also very beneficial!
I would have completed my assignments but there would have been no proper structure. It would be all messed up situation, but now it’s in a much better flow.
FEIT student who attended language development tutorials
