Course Outline
EDU766 Assessing Learning
Course Coordinator:Renee Morrison (rmorrison@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access
2026Session 5
UniSC Sunshine Coast |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
What is this course about?
Description
This course focuses on the dynamic nature of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment for learning principles in the context of secondary schooling. The theory and practice of assessment is interrogated through projects, including how to design intellectually challenging, authentic, credible, safe and engaging processes of assessment of, for and as learning for students. You will then apply specialised knowledge and skills to design, create and justify assessment artefacts including assessment criteria and participate in processes of assessment moderation.
How will this course be delivered?
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – Asynchronous online learning materials | 4hrs | Week 1 | 5 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – A blended learning approach is used to deliver the intensive component of this course. The intensive component is synchronous using technology-enabled learning and teaching experience that involves compulsory on-campus engagement and application of learning materials for a period of 2 days. | 8hrs | Week 3 | Once Only |
| Tutorial/Workshop 2 – A zoom session each week post the intensive. | 1hr | Week 4 | 5 times |
Course Topics
- The purposes and principles of assessment, moderation and feedback;
- Assessment for learning, assessment of learning, assessment as learning;
- Constructive alignment;
- The various national and state contexts for assessing student learning;
- Designing assessment: Task-specific criteria and standards, grading tools and rubrics, backward mapping; sharing success criteria with students;
- interpreting and using student assessment data for future planning;
- Setting and achieving goals for and with students;
- Standardised testing;
- the role and responsibility of teachers in reporting;
- Modifying assessment to cater for diversity and inclusion;
- Strategies to assess student learning including diagnostic, formative and summative assessments.
What level is this course?
700 Level (Specialised)
What is the unit value of this course?
12 units
How does this course contribute to my learning?
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | Professional Standard Mapping * Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1 | Research, evaluate and critically reflect on assessment principles and concepts related to Assessment for Learning, Assessment of Learning, Assessment as Learning. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker Ethical |
2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5 |
| 2 | Research and evaluate past and present assessment policy and practices in relevant secondary learning contexts and demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning and keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement. |
Creative and critical thinker Ethical |
2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5 |
| 3 | Apply deep knowledge and understanding of assessment processes and principles to design rigorous and authentic assessment products and associated teaching and learning sequences that promote learning, engage learners and provide credible assessment of standards. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker Ethical |
2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5 |
| 4 | Demonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning, and involve parents/carers in the educative process |
Knowledgeable Ethical |
2.2, 2.3, 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 |
* Competencies by Professional Body
| CODE | COMPETENCY |
| Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 2.2 | Content selection and organisation: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence. |
| 2.3 | Curriculum, assessment and reporting: Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans. |
| 3 | PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning |
| 3.1 | Establish challenging learning goals: Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics. |
| 3.2 | Plan, structure and sequence learning programs: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies. |
| 3.3 | Use teaching strategies: Include a range of teaching strategies. |
| 3.4 | Select and use resources: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning. |
| 5 | PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning |
| 5.1 | Assess student learning: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
| 5.2 | Provide feedback to students on their learning: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning |
| 5.3 | Make consistent and comparable judgements: Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning. |
| 5.4 | Interpret student data: Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice. |
| 5.5 | Report on student achievement: Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/ carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement |
Am I eligible to enrol in this course?
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Pre-requisites
Enrolled in Program ED706
Co-requisites
Not applicable
Anti-requisites
Not applicable
Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)
Not applicable
Microcredential Information
Not applicable
How am I going to be assessed?
Grading Scale
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Details of early feedback on progress
Task 1 online quiz added prior to census to provide early feedback to students
Assessment tasks
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Quiz/zes | Individual | 10% | 20 mins duration |
Week 2 | Online Test (Quiz) |
| All | 2 | Artefact - Professional, and Written Piece | Individual | 50% | 2500 words to be completed in CADMUS |
Week 5 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 3 | Essay | Individual | 40% | 2500 words |
Week 8 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Online quiz | ||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to assess your knowledge and understanding of the Australian F-10 Curriculum and of assessment processes and principles (both past and present). |
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| Product: | Quiz/zes | |||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||
| Format: | Answer a series of online questions, part multiple choice, part true-false. More details will be provided on CANVAS in Week 1. This quiz must be done prior to census date. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | ||||||||||
| All - Assessment Task 2:Critical Evaluation of a unit–assessment & reporting | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to apply your understanding of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting to evaluate an existing unit of work and to devise some assessment and reporting opportunities. |
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| Product: | Artefact - Professional, and Written Piece | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | This task includes three sections. First, critically evaluate an existing unit of work for its constructive alignment. Next, design and justify a summative assessment task that could be used to assess and support student learning in this unit. Finally, describe and justify one “light-touch learning update” and one formal reporting strategy to communicate the learning that has occurred in this unit to parents/ caregivers. All sections should be supported by research literature. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Moderation: participation and evaluation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to apply your skills in making judgements about student learning by participating in, and then reflecting on, an assessment moderation process. You will also provide targeted feedback for the parent/ care-giver of two students and describe adjusted instruction based upon assessment data. |
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| Product: | Essay | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Students will participate in a group assessment moderation process during the second half of the course. They engage in professional conversations to make consistent judgements about student learning. Next, they individually write a critical reflection on the moderation process and on the assessment item, using research literature to support the reflection. Students also provide targeted feedback for the parent/ care-giver of two students and consider future teaching implications based upon assessment data. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Applying technologies, Information literacy |
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Directed study hours
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
What resources do I need to undertake this course?
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Prescribed text(s) or course reader
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Linda Cranley,Genevieve Johnson,Wendy Harmon | 2021 | Assessment, Feedback and Reporting, 1st Edition | n/a | Cengage AU |
Specific requirements
Not applicable
How are risks managed in this course?
What administrative information is relevant to this course?
Assessment: Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Assessment: Additional Requirements
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Assessment: Submission penalties
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
Links to relevant University policy and procedures
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
- Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
- Review of Assessment and Final Grades
- Supplementary Assessment
- Central Examinations
- Deferred Examinations
- Student Conduct
- Students with a Disability
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
Student Charter
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
General Enquiries
For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: