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Assessment Action Plan 2022–2027

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In 2021, the Assessment Working Party developed an Assessment Action Plan to progress assessment at UQ, identifying key actions to undertake in the next five years.

This Plan is built on an initial background paper and adopts Emerge Education and JISC's (2020) three guiding principles for future assessment: 

  1. Relevance to contemporary needs, using digitally enabled assessment emphasising human skills and business-critical competencies (essential)
  2. Adaptability in assessment, highlighting ‘student-centred and personalised, anytime and anywhere, efficient and manageable’; and 
  3. Trustworthiness – highlighting ethical issues of academic integrity, security, privacy and fairness.

In 2024 the Assessment subcommittee endorsed refinements to this plan.

1. Whole-of-program/plan* (relevant) assessment

“Whole-of-program” terminology needs to be enhanced to recognise the appropriate plan (major, minor, etc).

* Note – terminology

  • Plan: a prescribed combination of courses within a program being either a field of study, major, extended major, specialisation, minor or extended minor. 
  • Program: a sequence of study leading to the award of a qualification such as an undergraduate degree or diploma, and/or a postgraduate coursework qualification (PPL Program Design).

Action 1.1

Clarify UQ’s approach to whole-of-program assessment and its interaction with course level assessment including alignment to graduate attributes and program level outcomes.

Action 1.2

Refine governance structure for program leadership:

  • to facilitate quality assurance, curriculum review and evaluation of assessment at program and course levels
  • to ensure better student experience, better curriculum, and better program continuity. 

Action 1.3

Provide guidance and support for staff implementing program and course level assessment design:

  • to provide structure and support around the development and teaching of courses that are part of the critical pathway through the program to avoid difficulties with programmatic assessment
  • to provide staff with assistance related to communicating with students about the program of assessment. 

Action 1.4

Identify and acquire infrastructure to support whole-of-program assessment activities:

  • to support program-level assessment design and accreditation mapping
  • to get data from the courses in a program to allow review of students’ journey through their degree. 
  • to enable mapping to program outcomes (in addition to UQ graduate attributes). 
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2. Inclusive assessment

Action 2.1

Clarify principles, goals and approaches for inclusive and fair assessment design and implementation:

  • to enable sustainable, diverse and engaging assessment to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes
  • to develop equitable and transparent options for assessment practices at program and course levels
  • to enable appropriate assessment through the identification of inherent requirements to complete a program. 

Action 2.2

Review suite of existing systems (technical, policy and people) to enable sustainable assessment options identified as desirable at UQ:

  • to reduce workload and errors through automation of approved adjustments
  • to make available systems and processes that enable adaptable assessment practices. 

Action 2.3

Support the design of sustainable and inclusive assessment – including Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

  • to clarify the meaning of inclusive assessment at UQ, and support staff to adopt an inclusive approach to assessment design in our programs.
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3. Trustworthy assessment

Action 3.1

Support assessment and course design that enhances integrity of assessment (ethical, authentic, aligned, etc.):

  • to implement approaches that reduce risks of misconduct through assessment design and teaching
  • to emphasise and support a mindset of education (including assessment) for learning. 

Action 3.2

Refine assessment processes across the assessment lifecycle within courses and programs:

  • to enhance moderation and calibration processes through professional conversations before tasks reach students through to final marking
  • to provide feedback processes that enhance trustworthiness, including considerations of artifical intelligence. 

Action 3.3

Formalise processes and responsibilities for schools, faculties and UQ for reviewing grades and grading distributions:

  • to enhance comparability and reliability of grading. 

Action 3.4

Enhance academic integrity through new and continuing initiatives:

  • to increase assessment security and enhanced identification of breaches
  • to enhance our culture of integrity through education and support for students and staff
  • to undertake further actions as recommended by the Academic Integrity Working Party.
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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the work of the members of the 2021 Assessment Working Party:

  • Mx Elias Blanch
  • Prof Mark Horswill
  • Prof Lydia Kavanagh
  • Mrs Jacqui Lynagh
  • Mr Dom McGrath
  • Ms Aliisa Mylonas
  • A/Prof Liza O’Moore
  • Dr Lynda Shevellar
  • A/Prof Christine Slade
  • A/Prof Helen Wozniak
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Contact

UQ Assessment Sub-Committee oversees the implementation of this Plan.

For further information contact Associate Professor Christine Slade.