The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) was commissioned
by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee to develop the
resources on the Assessing Learning in Australian Universities
website.
The site is designed to support Australian universities and academic
staff in maintaining high quality assessment practices, in particular
in responding effectively to new issues in student assessment.
The ideas and strategies are focused on the practical educational
issues surrounding the purposes and design of student assessment
and reporting, in particular the way in which assessment might
be planned to optimise student approaches to study.
The CSHE is grateful for the input of the Australian academic
community to this project. The project team met with many staff
and students during state forums and case studies of faculties
and courses. The issues and ideas discussed at these occasions
have been used extensively in the development of the project outcomes.
The development of the resources was directed by Richard James
and Craig McInnis. Components of the project were conducted with
the collaboration of the University of Western Australia. The
CSHE is very grateful for the contribution of David Treloar, Kerry
Adams and Greg Marie to the project and its outcomes. The project
was also greatly assisted by the expertise and advice of Mantz
Yorke, Liverpool John Moores University, who acted as a consultant
throughout.
Marcia Devlin wrote five practical guides: minimising plagiarism;
online and computer-based assessment; assessing group activities;
assessing large classes and assessing students unfamiliar with
assessment practices in Australian higher education.
Many other people contributed to the project design, fieldwork
and preparation of resources, including Vivienne Kelly (overall
project coordination), Gabrielle Baldwin (fieldwork and the authoring
of resources), Ray Jalil (website design) and Karen Mecoles (website
development).
We are also very grateful to Jennifer Radbourne (Queensland University
of Technology), Duncan Nulty (Queensland University of Technology)
and Stuart Palmer (Deakin University), who prepared material for
the project based on personal experiences of initiatives which
have been implemented in assessment. Many other academic staff
contributed examples of their assessment practice for the Directory
of Good Practice.
The project was greatly assisted by an advisory group chaired
by Kwong Lee Dow (University of Melbourne and member of the Australian
Universities Teaching Committee), comprising David Finlay, (LaTrobe
University), Wayne Robinson, (University of Ballarat), Greg Cox
(Department of Education, Science and Training) Carol Nicoll (Department
of Education, Science and Training) and Robyn Martin (Department
of Education, Science and Training).
