Clear instructions for assessment

Communicating assessment instructions clearly and succinctly is essential for student success. Clear instructions help ensure students understand requirements and expectations, promoting fair and reliable assessments.

Why?

Clear instructions directly impact how well students understand requirements, synthesise information, and complete tasks (Roy et al., 2018). UOW's Assessment and Feedback Policy emphasises that well-defined instructions, covering learning outcomes, task guidelines and grading criteria, enhance student learning. These instructions often determine overall student performance, task completion, and satisfaction with the subject.

Clear instructions also promote academic integrity (Sabrina et al., 2002), reducing misinterpretation and the risk of plagiarism, collusion, or misuse of generative AI tools by clearly defining expectations and boundaries.

How?

Assessment instructions need to be clear, concise, and free of ambiguity or overly technical language. They should be easy to access and consistently presented to all students in the subject (and, where possible, across all subjects in a course).

The information and resources students need to complete the assessment will vary based on the task design. Below is a list of recommended elements to include in your instructions.

• Assessment title: Provide a clear, concise title, e.g., "Client Interviews" instead of "Assignment 1".
• Assessment weighting: Clearly indicate the assessment's value in the subject.
• Due and return date/time: Specify submission deadlines. When setting a due date, try to consider students' obligations and significant dates beyond the subject, such as major assessment due dates in other subjects, and cultural or community days of significance.  
  Note: Due dates set in Moodle activities will automatically be added to the calendar.
• Mode of submission: Specify the tool students will use for the assessment.
• Feedback release date: Inform students when feedback will be available so they can have the necessary time to engage with it before the next assessment task. 
• Subject Learning Outcomes (SLOs): Addressing SLOs will demonstrate to students how the assessment is aligned to the subject.
• Task description: Provide a brief overview, ensuring the assessment is transparent and designed for learning by including:
  • Requirements: Specify instructions, word count, and referencing guidelines that will help students understand the limits or boundaries they'll need to navigate to successfully complete the assessment.
  • Rubric: Inform students where to find the rubric, and make it available when the assessment is opened. This will help ensure alignment with the Assessment Requirements section and SLOs. 
  • Exemplars: Include anonymised examples of previous submissions (good and bad). Encourage students to assess these using the rubric to better understand assessment criteria and improve performance (Orsmond et al., 2002).
• Supporting resources: Provide examples, video/audio instructions (supported by a text transcript), and clarification opportunities. This can include an explanation of the assessment task, common points of confusion, and information about how the assessment relates to previous assessments. Set aside time for assessment discussion during a tutorial, include an assessment discussion forum on the subject site, or remind students of ways that they can contact the teaching team.  
• Practice submission activity: Familiarise students with online assessment procedures by providing a practice opportunity ahead of the formal assessment.  

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