Responsible officer: Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Designated officer: Director, Teaching and Research Services

Approval authority: Council

Approval: C07/97, 28 August 2007

Last amended:

Effective starting date: 29 August 2007

Policies replaced by this policy: None

Policy number: G5

Related policies:

• Statement of Graduate Attributes
• Program Accreditation and Course Approval Policy

Due date for review: 28 August 2012

Part A: Preliminary

1. Purpose of policy

This policy is intended to enunciate principles concerning, and set a framework for, assessment of students’ learning within courses and coursework programs, including Bachelor Honours programs.

2. Application of policy

This policy applies to all staff, students and members of University decision-making or advisory bodies.

3. Definitions

In addition to definitions given within this policy, the following definitions are relevant:

Academic standards means required levels of achievement or attainment or performance.
Grade means a representation of the overall level of attainment achieved by a student in a course, or for a Bachelor Honours program as a whole, as recorded on a student’s academic record or transcript.

Part B: Policy

1. What is meant by assessment

1.1 Assessment means any processes that are used to appraise a student’s knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills.

1.2 These processes serve a range of purposes, including:

(a) advancement of a student’s learning

(b) evaluation of a student’s knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills, and

(c) identification of a level of attainment, usually in the form of a mark or result or grade, that establishes the extent to which a student has met the required academic standards set by the University and any external bodies such as professional registration authorities.

1.3 Assessment may be formative, diagnostic, synoptic or summative in its primary purpose:

(a) formative assessment is designed to assist students to learn more effectively, for example, through provision of feedback on a student’s performance and advice as to how it can be improved or maintained

(b) diagnostic assessment is designed to identify, for both a student and assessor, the student’s strengths, and any potential gaps, in the knowledge, understanding and skills expected for commencement or continuation in a course or program, or to identify any other matters that may have an impact on the student’s capacity to undertake a course or program successfully

(c) synoptic assessment is designed to evaluate students’ capacity to integrate and apply the skills, knowledge and understanding gained in one part of a course or program to learning in other parts of the course or program or across the course or program as a whole, and

(d) summative assessment is designed to indicate the extent of a student’s success in achieving specified learning outcomes for a course or program; and it contributes to a student’s final grade in a course or, in the case of a Bachelor Honours program, the final grade for the program as a whole.

2. Institutional framework for assessment

2.1 The University, through the Academic Board, will develop and implement effective operational policy or procedures for:

(a) the design, documentation, approval, monitoring and review of assessment strategies for courses and coursework programs, and

(b) ensuring that the assessment strategies and academic standards set for each course are appropriate for a course in a program at a specific level and, in the case of a Bachelor Honours program, are appropriate for the program as a whole, meet any requirements or standards specified by a relevant professional, statutory or regulatory body, and that student performance is judged against those standards, and

(c) ensuring that assessment promotes effective learning while maintaining academic standards

2.2 The University will have clear rules or requirements for qualifying for admission to an award of the University, and will make these publicly available.

2.3 The University will provide all members of teaching and research staff, including sessional teaching staff, with opportunities for staff development in assessment, including in those approaches and processes identified in the higher education literature or judged by higher education quality assurance agencies as being models of good practice.

2.4 Deans and Heads of School will ensure that:

(a) all persons involved in assessment within a course or program, including any student peer assessors, are competent to undertake the assigned role and responsibility, and

(b) all staff and external moderators involved in assessment are made aware of all relevant University rules, policies, procedures and guidelines that pertain to assessment

2.5 The University will have effective, clear and consistent requirements and guidelines for the membership, procedures, powers and accountabilities of assessment panels and Boards of Examiners, and make these publicly available.

2.6 The University will have processes that ensure that assessment decisions are properly documented and that students are advised of the outcomes as quickly as possible and within reasonable timeframes.

2.7 The Academic Board will periodically review assessment-related rules, operational policies, procedures and practices to ensure that these remain fit for their purpose. These reviews should utilise, among other things, student feedback obtained through such mechanisms as national graduate surveys and student evaluations of teaching and courses, feedback from academic staff, and relevant findings from course evaluations and program reviews.

2.8 The Academic Board will periodically monitor and audit assessment practices to determine consistency or compliance with University policy and procedures for assessment.

3. Principles informing assessment

3.1 The following principles will inform assessment within coursework programs and in individual courses at the University of the Sunshine Coast:

(a) assessment contributes to student learning

(i) assessment will be designed to promote effective learning by students in pursuit of specified learning outcomes, including the graduate attributes, over time, and to demonstrate whether, and to what extent, students are achieving or have achieved the specified learning outcomes for a program and the courses that comprise the program
(ii) in their first year of study at the University, in particular, students will be oriented both to the ways in which assessment contributes to their learning and to the broad framework, principles and methods for assessment at the University, and
(iii) assessment in introductory and first year level courses should include formative assessment that includes feedback on academic performance, expectations and standards at the University, advice on how to use assessment feedback to improve learning, and an exposure to the different forms of assessment that the students are likely to experience in the program in which they are enrolled

(b) assessment involves provision of feedback to students on their performance

assessment will provide students with appropriate and timely feedback that promotes learning and facilitates improvement; and, to that end, assessment should be spread across a teaching period to enable students to benefit from feedback in undertaking subsequent learning tasks

(c) assessment involves provision of feedback to staff on their performance

appraisal of students’ knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills can provide valuable insights into curriculum design, curriculum delivery methods and assessment processes that may have contributed to, or affected, students’ learning and achievements: for this reason, assessment is regarded as a form of feedback on teaching that can be used to facilitate improvements in teaching as well as in learning

(d) assessment contributes to maintaining academic standards

assessment will comprise planned processes and elements that are justifiable on pedagogical grounds, or by virtue of being requirements of an accreditation or professional registration or relevant body that is external to the University, and which will enable a student to demonstrate a level of performance against institutional and any relevant external academic standards

(e) assessment aligns specified learning outcomes at course, program and institutional levels

assessment of a student’s learning will encompass and reinforce connections between graduate attributes and specified learning outcomes at course and program levels

(f) assessment processes are explicitly aligned with specified learning outcomes, learning tasks and required performance standards

the alignment of specified learning outcomes, learning tasks, assessment processes and academic or performance standards for courses and programs will be explicit and be made known to students and all those participating in the teaching, assessment or moderation for a course and program

(g) assessment is diverse in form and type

(i) in order that students can pursue and demonstrate achievement of a wide range of specified learning outcomes and of appropriate standards, there will be diversity of forms and types of assessment between and within courses, including components that are formative and summative in purpose, and
(ii) unless required by an external professional, statutory or regulatory body, or otherwise clearly justifiable on pedagogical or other grounds, the contribution of any single item of summative assessment to a student’s overall grade in a course will not exceed more than a half of the total value of all summative assessment for the course

(h) forms and types of assessment are suited to their purpose

the forms and types of assessment used (for example, examination, laboratory exercise, practicum, assignment) will be suitable for assessing the specified learning outcomes

(i) summative assessment is effective and reliable as a measure of specified learning outcomes

the nature, amount and timing of summative assessment will enable effective, appropriate and reliable measurement of students’ achievement of specified learning outcomes, and will be conducted with rigour, probity and fairness

(j) mechanisms for assigning assessment weightings and levels of achievement are fair and explicit

the mechanisms adopted for assigning weightings to, and assigning and moderating, levels of achievement will be fair and explicit

(k) summative assessments are moderated and, where warranted, reviewed

(i) there will be moderation of assessment outcomes from summative assessments to assure that the outcomes are fair and reliable and that assessment criteria have been applied consistently, and

(ii) there will be review of assessments where there is evidence to suggest that the assessment criteria have not been applied consistently across the student cohort

(l) assessment is conducted only in languages used in instruction

the languages used for assessment purposes in courses or programs will include only those languages used in teaching them

(m) students are entitled to dispute or lodge a grievance about assessment

a student is entitled to dispute, or lodge a grievance about, a summative appraisal made of the student’s knowledge, understanding, abilities or skills but must progress that dispute or grievance according to University rules, policies or procedures approved for that purpose, and

(n) students are made aware of assessment details and implications

(i) the purposes, nature, form, amount, weightings and timing of different assessment tasks, as well as the assessment criteria and standards for appraising a student’s performance in particular learning tasks and in a course as a whole (and, where appropriate, for a program as a whole) will be made available to students by no later than the time specified in any operational policy or procedure subsidiary to this policy
(ii) students will be advised of, and encouraged to comply with, conventions, obligations, procedures and requirements pertaining to assessment including such matters as submission deadlines, requests for extensions of time, intellectual property and plagiarism
(iii) students will be advised of the implications, ramifications and possible consequences of failure to comply with assessment conventions, obligations, procedures and requirements
(iv) students will be advised of any standard procedures or processes relating to assessment in the case of students with a disability or students experiencing severe circumstances that may adversely affect their performance in assessment, and
(v) students will be advised of official procedures for progressing a dispute or grievance in relation to a summative assessment.

4. Records management

4.1 Effective systems will be in place for record-keeping and records management in relation to all assessment.