Quality assured (UOW Assessment & Feedback Principle)

The quality of an assessment is determined by its ability to accurately capture students' true aptitude in a task, and therefore their ability to meet subject learning outcomes. Thus, it also determines academics' ability to accurately report on and plan for students' learning.

To be quality assured, assessment should:

1. be made consistent via rubrics with clear expectations,
2. have marks moderated or calibrated across the cohort, and,
3. be purposefully reviewed to ensure continuous improvement based on student feedback and teaching literature.

These features are explored in greater detail in the following video by Professor David Boud.

Why?

Considering quality assurance when design and delivering all assessment service two broad purposes:

• Supports the assessment of students’ genuine performance.

When the quality of assessment is assured, high marks are only awarded for genuine comprehension and execution of the task requirements and subject learning outcomes, rather than markers’ individual preferences, bias, chance or academic misconduct.

• Ensures assessment is aligned with external standards such as the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and the Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF).

Under the HESF, the University has obligations in relation to the quality assurance of its courses, assessment methods and grading.

How?

Consider the questions below to evaluate how both new and existing assessments could be strengthened.

Rubrics

Are rubric criteria consistently referred to throughout assessment support, marking and feedback?

Related Strategies

• Connect all practice opportunities and tips to specific criteria and subject learning outcomes.
• Collate all answers to specific questions at the teaching team level.
• Ensure all marks and feedback are linked to specific criteria.
• Consider opportunities for students to review and provide feedback on rubrics before use.

Grading Decisions

Are the grading decisions consistent between markers?

Related Strategies

• Marking team strategy and debrief meetings.
• Exemplars employed for each band.
• Rubrics with details descriptors.
• Random double-marking.

Feedback & Review

Is feedback being methodically collected and used to provide incremental improvements to assessment tasks?

Related Strategies

• Multiple feedback opportunities available to students.
• Ensure feedback is collected throughout learning cycle.
• Devise team approach for collecting, sharing and reflecting upon feedback.
• Identify actions from feedback, including features to continue, begin, or stop.