PP654 UniSa Freney - Final Report Feb 2010.pdf - Office for ...

grades based on their professional opinion, while communicating to students that allthe assessment criteria are important but, in some disciplines, it is the holistic view ofthe work that counts the most.Another frustration with the weighting issue is that if an assessment has many (i.e.greater than four) weighted assessment criteria all with similar weightings, poorperformance in one or two criteria can easily be overcome by high performance inothers. It is conjectured here that it would be beneficial if certain assessment criteriawere designated as “must pass” criteria, even though they may not carry a heavyweighting. This would clearly communicate to students the importance of gainingcompetency in a certain area, and would solve the frustration mentioned above.A scheme such as this creates a powerful mechanism for “failing” a student, andtherefore it raises the issue of what to do when a student fails an assignment. Acommon procedure in higher education is to offer the student an opportunity toresubmit the assignment, often with a limit on the number of marks that can beawarded for the resubmission. It was the experience of the project leader that CAFASwas very useful for assessing such resubmissions. The methodology used was tosimply edit the original feedback form (digitally), clearly identifying new feedbackcomments with the prefix “resubmission”. Thus it was evident if assessment criteriahad/had not been addressed by the resubmission as the original and subsequent(“resubmission”) comments were contained in each feedback text box. Contrasting thiswith the conventional paper based system, in which the feedback form may be lost ornot resubmitted with the resubmitted assignment, the ability to easily store and accessdigital copies of feedback forms, and edit them for resubmissions greatly helps to keeptrack of a student’s progress.The ability to digitally edit the feedback form is the essence of all these proposedinnovations. Attempting these types of schemes using the current paper-basedparadigm is impractical if not impossible, but CAA technology makes such schemeseasily achievable-once the initial “learning curve” of becoming familiar with a newsoftware system is over.These proposals highlight the possibility that systems such as ReView, CAFAS, andsubsequent generations of CAA systems, will stimulate and enable innovativeapproaches to assessment practice.8.0 Analysis of Critical FactorsCommunication StrategyA critical factor in the success of the project was regular communication with teammembers, especially during important stages of the project (e.g. in the lead up totrials). This was achieved via the usual means of meetings, email and telephone. Useof voice over internet technology (via Centra virtual classroom software) anddevelopment of a SharePoint website were also important elements of thecommunication, and project management strategy, as this enabled team members whowere dispersed over many campuses, and interstate, to view and discussdocuments/websites online during meetings. Meeting minutes and specificationdocuments were posted on the SharePoint website to provide a central repository forimportant documents that all team members could access.Computer Aided Feedback & Assessment System (CAFAS) 35