All assessments in Faculty must be engaging, purposeful and above all valuable for the students themselves.
A philosophy of assessment serves to make explicit the Faculty of Arts priorities and goals concerning assessment providing a guiding framework for course authorities to make informed decisions when designing or changing assessment and to create the important bridge to the world beyond the University and facilitate meaningful relationships with external partners.
Additionally, an articulated philosophy on assessment provides a means to observe the Faculty’s evolving approach to assessment over time, in light of issues relating to student retention, attendance, engagement and mental health and emerging challenges such as AI and Large Language Models.
1.1 - Faculty Assessment Manual
A manual for preferred assessment types specific to course levels through the lenses of our disciplines. This will have a focus on authentic assessment (see theme 4) as well as a strong component of digital and media-based assessment types.
The utility and capability of various defined assessment types to specific types of needs (through learning outcomes) will be carefully articulated in theme 3.
1.2 - Student Assessment Stories
Currently, a student’s assessment story may include “17 essays in 3 years”. What do we want our student assessment stories to look like moving forward?
This work area will formulate a standardised approach to articulating student stories, including input from students themselves, to describe the assessment journey through different levels across a student’s whole course.
Through a template approach to creating user stories, we hope to articulate a variety of student stories around the variety of disciplines and course structures we offer to clearly articulate the Course Level Designs (see theme 2) in meaningful ways to our students.
1.3 - Fit-For-Purpose Assessment
With the data we have available post-Curriculum Architecture 2020, we are aware of an apparent reliance on more traditional inauthentic forms of assessment and an over-reliance on particular types.
This has led to a disconnect between the utility of certain types of assessment and the actual work they are doing when mapped to Learning Outcomes.
To remedy this situation, we will create indicative quotas on assessment types and clearer rules on the usage of assessment for non-Unit Learning Outcomes purposes. (ie. attendance, behaviour etc.).