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Get involved

This is your chance to improve assessment at UQ

By improving your own assessment

And by improving the assessment practice of others

The UQ Assessment Ideas Factory is a searchable database of assessment techniques. Course coordinators can use the database to find assessment techniques that promote , student engagement and academic integrity. The assessment techniques are described in general terms so you can transfer them into your course, plus you can also hear how staff have put them into practice. You can filter your search by many factors such as class size, year level, whether the assessment is identity verified, assessment type (e.g. , , group etc.) or any combination of these.

What's more, you can contribute your assessment techniques to the database. An entry in the database can be used as evidence of your teaching quality (only quality assessments are included) and your impact on the teaching practice of others (and thus can be included in your Form A in sections 2.6, 2.7 and folio 3).

If you try an assessment listed in the database you can comment on your experiences and help other staff make assessment decisions.

Share your assessment method by using either the online form or word template below.

Add new assessment online or Download word template

Project timeline

Overview

About the project

Certain assessment techniques are better than others. Engaging assessment techniques can not only increase student enjoyment and engagement, but lead to increases in student retention. techniques ensure an alignment of assessment with graduate attributes, but more importantly, enhance graduate outcomes once they enter the workforce. Some assessment techniques promote student integrity, which is important in a world where academic misconduct is on the increase and is difficult to detect. It is possible to design that promotes student engagement and integrity. This Project - funded by the University of Queensland's Teaching Innovation Grants Scheme - is designed to identify and promote these assessment techniques.

It is envisioned that the database will transform assessment design by assisting UQ staff to create and implement innovative, relevant, and engaging assessments that promote student engagement, and foster an environment in which staff and students collaborate in assessment design.

Rationale

Engaging assessment can facilitate student understanding of course content through a 'learning, acting, being' pedagogy. This kind of pedagogy can lead to increased student retention from gateway courses to capstones and Honours (Boud et al., 2010), and ensure an alignment between learning outcomes (e.g. Graduate Attributes) and assessment (Biggs 1999). Assessment of this type meets HaSS Faculty and UQ Strategic Teaching and Learning Priorities to improve student retention, increase student participation in non-traditional learning environments, increase student satisfaction, and improve graduate employment outcomes.

Academic misconduct is on the increase. banks (where pre-written essays can be purchased) and mills (where a ghost-writer can be employed to write a specific ) increase opportunities for misconduct in university assessment. A Sydney Morning Herald investigation revealed university students paid over $160,000 to just one such service in 2014. Such misconduct, especially in the case of mills, is difficult to detect. It is time to shift our focus from detection to prevention. UQ has explored Identity Verified Assessment Hurdles (IVAH) with a focus on exams, but we need to identify examples of more diverse assessment that support both academic integrity and pedagogies, and thus foster quality teaching and learning environments. IVAH shows promise but without proven models and case studies to follow, academics are likely to rely on exams to meet IVAH requirements. Traditional exams may address plagiarism and misconduct, but generally do not promote an pedagogy (Shaffer et al. 2005).

We need to:

Provide students with a variety of assessment techniques that are engaging and authentic, and that promote academic integrity, student retention and employability.

Identify and share quality assessment techniques to facilitate their uptake by UQ staff.

References

Biggs, J. 1999 What the Student Does: Teaching for enhanced learning, Higher Education Research &
Development, 18(1):57-75.
Boud, D. et al. 2010 Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education.
Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
Shaffer, D.W., R. Halverson, K.R. Squire and J.P. Gee 2005 A range of assessment types (including a video essay; video presentation) that are required to be designed, constructed and submitted in an audio visual form.... Games and the Future of Learning. WCER
Working Paper No. 2005-4.

Aims and Outcomes

The main deliverable will be a searchable online database hosted on ITaLI web infrastructure. The database will provide an overview of each assessment technique and detail how they encourage academic integrity, promote student engagement, and enhance employability, as well as their transferability across disciplinary boundaries. Searchable functions will include the type of assessment and the requirements for use (infrastructure, class size, staff effort, etc.). Instructions on how to use the assessment including how to employ existing UQ assessment strategies such as Blackboard and Turnitin rubrics will be included, as will the fit of the assessment technique with UQ's graduate attributes. Details of description, categorisation and search features will be driven by both interviews and end-user feedback.

The proposed database has five principal aims:

1. To facilitate a quality teaching and learning environment for UQ students by promoting:

Engagement with assessment ensuring an enjoyable learning experience that encourages student retention;

Equity through the provision of diverse learning opportunities to suit different learners;

Fairness through the promotion of academic integrity;

2. To identify quality assessment techniques already in use by academics in the HaSS Faculty (and with future funding, other UQ faculties), including:

Appropriate and proven technology-enriched approaches to assessment;

Varied assessments that support diverse learning styles.

3. To promote these techniques and encourage their uptake across UQ:

Through a database available to all UQ staff that details the techniques and provides tips on the transferability of the various techniques.

By ensuring that the final database suits all UQ staff - a reference group of academics and professional staff from across UQ's faculties is advising the project team on how best to create a database that suits all UQ staff, and that can be extended to include assessment techniques from other faculties in the future should funding allow

4. To promote academic integrity without the onerous or 'heavy handed' approaches of identity verified tools and computerised misconduct detection.

5. To contribute to scholarship of teaching and learning beyond the University of Queensland, through peer reviewed publications, conferences and social media, enhancing the reputation of UQ as an innovative leader in education.

References
Boud, D. et al. 2010 Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education.
Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

View the database Add a new assessment method Contact us

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This is your chance to improve assessment at UQ By improving your own assessment And by improving the assessment practice of others The UQ Assessment Ideas Factory is a searchable database of assessment techniques. Course coordinators can use the database to find assessment techniques that promote , student engagement and academic integrity.

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UQ Assessment Ideas Factory - A database of innovative assessment techniques to promote student engagement and encourage academic integrity

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Revitalising Language Assessment: Sustainable change through international benchmarking and knowledge transfer

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The extensive experience of the School's academic staff in language assessment will be harnessed in workshop forums and then documented in a repository of sample assessment tasks. Cutting edge assessment tools will deliver proof students have reached a certain level in interaction as well as a consistent whole-of-School approach to language assessment, putting the UQ School of Language and Cultures at the forefront of standard setting in Australian higher education.

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Importing Language Assessment? The reception of the CEFR in Australian Universities

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2018 Assessment and the CEFR - Staff Survey

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.