Student Assessment Policy

Purpose of the Student Assessment policy

The purpose of the student assessment policy is to:

• provide a framework for conducting assessment across the university
• establish general principles in relation to planning and conducting student assessment.

Student Assessment Procedures to support the implementation of this policy are currently under development.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

1. What is criterion-referenced assessment?

This involves assessing students on the basis of performance defined by pre-specified criteria.

2. The student assessment policy talks about assessment that is based on explicit criteria (criterion-referenced assessment). Do I need to identify explicit criteria for each assessment task? Why do I need to do this?

Yes. You need to clearly identify what you are assessing for each task and for each grade set that is available so that assessment is fair, transparent and consistent and each student knows what is being assessed and receives explicit feedback on their performance.

3. What do I need to consider when developing criteria for my assessment tasks?

The criteria must be appropriate to the level of education, group of students and assessment context and be clearly aligned to the learning outcomes.

4. I give my students CC or PP in my subject - do I need to develop criterion-referencing for each assessment task?

Absolutely. All assessment that is graded or ranked for example (A, B, C, D, E; CC PP; P, C, D, HD) or ( 9/10; 55%) - needs to include clearly stated criterion about what is being assessed and what students have to demonstrate (both quantitatively and qualitatively) to achieve each available grade set.

5. I teach Certificate III students – should I grade their work?

Unless students require a grade for the purposes of articulating to higher education courses or for particular industries or if you are in an auspicing arrangement with a secondary school delivering a scored unit 3-4 program, teachers working in competency-based programs are not required to grade. For more information on grading in TAFE contact the Quality Teaching and Innovation Unit (QTIU) in Staff Learning and Educational Development (SLED).

6. I've been told that returning students' work in a box outside my office violates their privacy. Is that right?

Victoria University 's policy on Privacy is based on The Information Privacy Act 2000 (the IP Act). The Act was established to enforce the responsible collection and handling of personal information in the Victorian public sector – which includes positive or negative information about how well a student has done in any assessment task. So, w hether it is a box of essays outside a room or a list of names on a public notice board, teachers need to be very careful not to violate students' right to privacy either in returning students work or discussing student progress. Privacy can also be violated in some classroom learning activities: information about students and their families (marital status, religion, migratory history, socio economic status, etc) is not anyone else's business.

Can I access VUSIS to see how my students are going in subsequent years?

No – they are no longer your students and you no longer have the right to access any sort of information about them. However well intended, it is unethical to monitor students in this way.

7. Do students have the right to access information about themselves – including personal information about their progress?

Yes – students can access information you have about them. So teachers need to keep in mind that personal information is recorded information (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion. Other students should not have access to personal information.

Go to http://www.vu.edu.au/library/pdf/default/ipppg.pdf to access Victoria University 's Information Privacy policy.

8. What is moderation? (What is the difference between moderation and validation?)

Moderation is a component of the broader validation process. It usually occurs post assessment and involves comparing examples of completed assessments to enhance comparability and consistency of standards in assessment outcomes. This can be done internally or with teachers and trainers from other institutions. Remember that in order to maintain students' privacy any completed assessments used in moderation should not contain information which identifies the individual student/s. Validation is broader and occurs pre and post assessment. It should include validation of the whole assessment process such as assessment tools, evidence collected and assessor qualifications.

9. Do I need to moderate?

Yes, moderation and/or validation need to be built into every course or program delivered at Victoria University . It is part of the University's quality assurance system. There is a requirement to validate assessment strategies used to deliver TAFE VET programs at least annually.

10. How do I moderate and/or validate?

You need to review, compare and evaluate your assessment processes, tools and evidence contributing to judgements made by a range of assessors against the same assessment tasks. Moderation can be undertaken by using a number of internal or external approaches for example participating in external assessor networks or moderation meetings. Sampling is another approach you could use where you collect a percentage of assessment outcomes for an assessment task and compare assessment decisions. Any action taken as a result of the process needs to be documented.

11. Can moderation happen online?

Of course. There is no need for staff to meet to discuss work – and with so many programs being taught off shore, that is sometimes just not possible. You could broaden your moderating group by comparing and contrasting assessment online. Ask QTIU for help.

12. How can I reduce the amount of time staff spend moderating each subject?

Criterion-referencing for assessment is not only fairer to students, it also makes it easier for staff to moderate across a course. Well-written, specific criterion for each assessment task makes marking tasks (and providing feedback to students) easier. For help in developing criterion for assessment in your area, contact QTIU:

According to the policy, ‘student work must not be used as teaching or research materials without the approval of the student(s) concerned' – what about for the purposes of moderation?

The same privacy issues apply – not only should you get students' permission, you should also make work anonymous by deleting all personal details..

13. What's the difference between formative and summative assessment?

Formative assessment takes place during a course or program and usually develops knowledge and skills that contribute to the achievement of a learning outcome. Formative assessment may contribute to the summative assessment of the learning outcome or it may be used as a mechanism for monitoring student progress to identify areas that may need to be addressed and as a basis for providing ongoing feedback. For example, this can take the form of a portfolio made up of smaller individual tasks completed during the program but assessed together as a portfolio at the end of the program. Sometimes formative assessment may be graded (a draft essay might be worth 10%).

Summative assessment is used to assess the overall learning outcome and occurs at the end of the learning outcome/unit of competency/module.

14. If formative assessment is not worth a mark, most students don't do it – so how can we support students through formative assessment tasks?

Mark them – you might weight them lightly, but if any assessment task is important and you think students should do it then it needs to be worth something!

15. How does the University promote effective learning, teaching and assessment?

The University has in place quality assurance processes and procedures to support effective teaching and fair assessment practices. All assessment practices must be fair, flexible, reliable, sufficient and valid.

16. Where can I find out more on teaching and learning policies?

The Learning and Teaching Policy sets out the University's approach to effective learning, teaching and assessment. The Student Assessment Policy focuses on assessment practices. Other relevant policies are the Plagiarism, Recognition and Induction for Teaching policies.

17. The Student Assessment Policy says that if possible ‘assessment tasks should be informed by workplace situations'. What are some of the ways that other teaching areas are doing this?

Some areas have students undertaking projects in the workplace or spending time in relevant employment as a component of their course. Where this occurs or is proposed it should be a structured component with explicit relationships to specified assessment criteria. There is a range of ways that assessment tasks could be informed by workplace situations. See Learning the in the Workplace website: http://tls.vu.edu.au/SCS/LiW/case_stud.htm#

Useful references

Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) (2001). The Training Package Assessment Materials Project, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs

This project produced ten guides containing a range of practical tools and resources to enhance assessment practices in the VET sector. Useful guides include:

• Assessment guide 1: Training Package assessment materials kit
• Assessment guide 2: Assessing competencies in higher qualifications
• Assessment guide 8: Strategies for ensuring consistency in assessment
• Assessment guide 10: Quality assurance guide for assessment

See website for Department of Education, Science and Training at http://165.12.253.219/publications/search.asp?qsScope=1&qsSubject=3&search=go

Australian Universities Teaching Committee(AUTC) (2002). Assessing Learning in Australian Universities : ideas, strategies and resources for quality in student assessment

http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au.assessinglearning/

Biggs, J., 2003, Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does , Buckingham: Society for Research in Higher Education and Open University Press.

(chapters 8 and 9)

Brown, S. and Race, P. (1996). 500 tips on assessment, London : Kogan Page.

Gibbs, G. (1995). Assessing student centred courses , Oxford : Oxford Brookes University

Morgan, C. &O'Reilly, M. (2004). The student assessment handbook: New directions in traditional and online assessment, London : Routledge

Nightingale, P., Te Wiata, I. , Toohey, S., Ryan, G. Hughes, C. &

Magin, D.(1996) Assessing learning in universities, UNSW Press: Sydney .

Race, P., Brown, S. and Smith, B., 2005, 500 Tips on Assessment, Routledge Falmer: London

To obtain an overview of currently approved teaching and learning pollicies, following the links in the Diagram.