Reviewing unit assessment profile
Overview of the process
At the school/departmental level at the end of each trimester, a Results Ratification meeting chaired by the respective DoT is called to review and sign-off on each unit offering for the trimester. Prior to this meeting each Unit Chair is required to complete an online Unit Report for their unit/s addressing and providing an explanation of any unusual result distributions, including teaching and management problems or issues that arose during the trimester. This unit report includes:
- checks that all fails were double marked and checked,
- any moderation of results has been rationally explained,
- any academic integrity issues reported,
Once the students’ results for the unit have been approved at this meeting, the Unit Chair is required to upload all the unit results to Callista. The DBS Support or DLS Support team supports staff in uploading results. For more information or if you would like assistance with this process, please visit the Uploading Results page.
Following the completion of all these school/departmental level meetings, the Faculty Academic Progress Committee (FAPC) then meets with all the DoTs to discuss any anomalies and resolve or hold any results where there are doubts existing prior to final ratification by the FAPC and the approval by the FAPC Chair to Release Results, which is managed by DSA.
The Unit Report is held by the Faculty and the FAPC accesses this information in the event that a Review of Result application is submitted and/or Complaint is received. The FAPC will address these concerns satisfactorily and will contact the respective Unit Chair for further student-specific explanations as is deemed appropriate for addressing the concerns raised. This information is also used for reporting purposes and comparative assessments of previous offerings of the respective units.
Accessing the online Unit Report
The unit report is completed using an online web form. You can access this form via this link. All of the units you are Unit Chair for will appear there and you are required to complete all of the fields before submitting the form. The form will then progress to the DoT for approval. Detailed instructions on completing the form are available here.
Reviewing the profile of grades for your unit
When completing the unit report, whilst there is no mandated proportion for each grade level, you will be required to complete a rationale statement if the unit results show HD or N grades for more than 20% of students. In these rationale statements you should reflect on any organisational or delivery aspects that may have impacted on student performance.
An example of a quality reflective response for a high number of HD results follows. Note how the academic has considered how to provide more challenge to students:
This is a relatively small, high-achieving student cohort with an average WAM of 71. Lectures and practical classes were attended on a regular basis and the majority of students actively participated in discussions. This level of student engagement was reflected in the marks attained.
Students achieved particularly high marks in their oral presentations this year, which were well-researched, and of a very high standard clearly demonstrating their level of knowledge and successfully addressing all learning outcomes. However, some questions on the final test need to be more challenging.
An example of a response that could be improved follows. It is for a unit with a high number of fails and the Unit Chair has not identified actions for the following year.
Among the 43 students who failed this unit, 40 of them (40/43=93%) did not complete one or two assessment tasks (either assignments or exam). This is the major reason why the failure rate is over 20%. Explanation of analysis of the exam questions and level of difficulty should be discussed in comparison to previous offerings. Class and Seminar attendance and student engagement with the unit generally, including learning materials and other learning activities. Also consideration of the level of assessment feedback and timeliness and delivery of all the CloudDeakin aspects of the unit should be reflected upon.
Unusual Distribution of Results (High Fail or HD rate)
If you have queries about unusual result distributions then you should discuss these issues with your Director of Teaching or the Faculty Academic Progress Chair.
