Guidance on getting started with preparing alternative assessments at the University of Tasmania in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Guiding principles for alternative assessment
The University of Tasmania recognises that any changes to existing assessment place extra pressure on both our students, and our staff. As a people-centred university, we encourage you to adopt measures that keep additional requirements to a minimum, and to bear in mind the wellbeing of both yourselves and students.
Some key recommendations for adapting your assessments:
Communicate and explain any changes to assessment to students and provide details of any expectations about equipment they should have access to.
Keep it simple: stick to low-tech and text-based systems or simple alternatives. The more complex you make the assessment, the more opportunities there are for something to fail.
Proposed changes to assessment will need to be approved. There may be a greater opportunity to change the assessments for the next semester than is possible right now.
UTAS Assessment and Results Policy
The Higher Education Standards and the UTAS Assessment and Results Policy shape our usual approaches to assessment as well as choice of appropriate alternative assessments.
"Central to the University of Tasmania’s learning and teaching activities, this policy outlines our commitment to assess student academic work appropriately.
1.1 Assessment will be designed to promote student learning.
1.2 Assessment will be undertaken in a manner that is fair, transparent and equitable.
1.3 Results will reflect student achievement against specified learning outcomes.
1.4 Assessment will be regularly reviewed and enhanced.
1.5 University decisions regarding assessment and results will be subject to review and appeal on grounds specified within relevant procedure.”
The following recommendations are provided by the Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education:
Your starting point is the learning outcomes for the modules the alternative assessment should align with these outcomes.
Ensure students have sufficient skills to demonstrate their learning. They should have an opportunity, where possible, to trial any unfamiliar method, without grading.
Students should be given clear comprehensive instructions on all aspects of the operation and completion of the online assessment, including such information on the required file formats and the number of attempts allowed for that assessment component.
Students should be informed of all changes to assessment methods.
The alternative assessment should require an equivalent effort on the part of the student, estimated, for example, by student effort hours on the assessment task, length of time or word count.
Be aware that some students for a variety of reasons may have challenges engaging with online assessment. These students should be encouraged to self-identify in advance so that individual arrangements can be made.
Students’ work will need to be judged having regard to the unfamiliar teaching and learning context that students will have experienced.
Existing assessment criteria/rubrics may need to be adapted to align with the alternative assessment. It is important that these revisions are shared with the students and are used to support inter-rater reliability of multiple graders. Bear in mind that other graders may require some guidance and upskilling.
Ensure secure recording and storage of online assessments.
To minimise concerns about academic integrity, consideration should be given to the design and implementation of the alternative assessment
Ensuring Equity
It is important to consider anything that may negatively impact your students’ ability to access or complete an assessment task.
Internet access
Not all students will have consistent, reliable access to a high quality Internet. Critique your assessment tasks and consider whether students require Internet access to:
Think about how to ensure students who have less than optimal internet access can complete the task. For example:
If students must access certain online resources during completion of a task, can you provide those resources in a downloadable format, so they can be downloaded in one sitting?
If students are asked to submit answers in a quiz or survey, what happens if they lose internet access while completing the task? Can you provide a downloadable and editable copy of the questions, and advise students to work offline, then copy their answers into the online form so they don’t lose all their working?
Accessibility
Some students will need very specific adjustments to enable them to have fair access to learning materials and assessments. Some ‘adjustments’ are always required, such as providing text alternatives to audio-visual materials. However, it is worth remembering that making materials and tasks more accessible usually makes them better for everyone. Quick information about making accessible documents, presentations, videos, etc can be found in the Accessibility section of the UTAS Teaching and Learning website.
Some of the key accessibility guidelines (for the web, but relevant beyond web documents) covered include:
Text alternatives are provided for non-text content
Content is easy to navigate
Readability of the content is good
Reasonable time is provided for access to content
Options for alternative assessments
This section provides some alternative assessment types, together with some important considerations. Below are reasonable adjustments to be used in the current extraordinary circumstances. They will not necessarily replicate the original assessment tasks, but will give students some manageable alternatives.
Expand a section below to see alternative options you could use for each type of assessment, and how you can maintain standards as you make these changes.
Time-constrained unseen exams in invigilated exam rooms or in-class tests:
Time-limited closed book invigilated exams do not have to be replaced by another exam-like test. You may instead choose to replace the exam with a completely different assessment format. The key focus in any decision is to determine what intended learning outcomes need to be measured and to find an appropriate alternative.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
The chosen assessment method must be capable of measuring the intended learning outcomes not already measured in the unit.
Note. Online proctored/invigilated exams will be supported only if required by an accrediting body. If this applies to your unit, please contact your College.
Online exams involve questions being released to students at an advertised time, with responses submitted by students within a fixed period. Such assessments will not be invigilated, so should be considered “open book”, meaning that students will be allowed access to notes and online resources while they take the exam.
An alternative exam format would be to time the release of the exam paper on MyLO with a timeframe in which to submit through the MyLO Assignments folder. The same approach could be applied to problem-solving or short-answer questions.
Many staff already use take-home exams, where students may have at least a few days (usually between 3 days and one week) to complete their paper. A take-home exam over a number of days will often be quite similar to a short assignment that might be set during semester.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
As with normal assignments, because students have access to materials, the design of questions will need to be reframed to move away from recall-based tasks to questions that require students to demonstrate how they use information rather than reiterate what they have learned. It will be important, therefore, to provide guidance for students about the change in orientation of the task. It is also good practice to re-run any changes to question formats through the usual moderation processes.
Under normal time-bounded exam conditions, there is no need to specify word count. With open book, it is very important to set an indicative word or page length.
Open book assessments carry an increased risk of unauthorised collaboration (collusion) between students. Carefully designed exam questions can reduce the risk of plagiarism. For example, tasks or questions should not have only one correct answer. Therefore, multiple-choice formats are not recommended for take-home open book exam conditions. Instead use questions that invite students to catalogue, critique, plan, defend, reflect on their own learning, justify or rank rather than to list, explain or describe. Open book assessments also provide an opportunity to actively test students’ ability to source and use information correctly.
Setting questions that require students to reflect on their own experiences or context is good practice. A selection of questions that can be randomly allocated to students can also help to reduce concerns about collusion, particularly for exams with short time-frames. Asking scenario or case-based questions that require students to interpret the issue or problem can also help.
During an in-person invigilated exam, students would normally be able to review their exam responses (e.g., go back to an earlier question if they realise they misunderstood) so the same opportunity would be expected.
Assessments submitted through Assignments in MyLO can utilise the Turnitin text-comparison system to help identify plagiarism.
Unlike standard in-semester coursework, extensions are not usually granted for take-home exams, although students may apply for deferred examination. Questions should be varied for deferred tests.
Please seek guidance from your School or College regarding timetabling of short- or long-form take-home exams. Students with multiple take-home exams will need adequate time to undertake each unit’s exam.
In-class presentations where students speak to an audience of their peers/others and are assessed not only on the content but also their presentation techniques:
Ask students (individually or in groups) to submit a narrated presentation in electronic form which can then be tutor-marked and peer-reviewed. PowerPoint is familiar to most students, and offers a slide-by-slide voice-narration recording facility
Video
Most students will have access to video recording on their phone or computer.
Podcast
Ask students to prepare a podcast on the topic to be submitted electronically.
To assure standards you might need to consider…
You will need to take account of the fact that, given the recorded presentation format, students can have multiple opportunities to prepare the item they are submitting, rather than having to cope with the one-off nature of a live presentation.
Students could be asked to also answer questions following their presentation, either asynchronously, such as through Discussion boards, or during a Collaborate or phone session.
Students can share their slides or visual material and present to you alone or to you and other class-/group-members.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
Depending on the class and students’ experiences prior to the presentation, this format may present additional stress compared to a face-to-face presentation as it requires students to simultaneously manage technology. It would be recommended to provide students practice in presenting in this format prior to assessment, either in class or within smaller groups.
Presentation sessions can be organised for smaller groups within the class (use the Groups function in MyLO to construct your groups). This can facilitate a fair number of students attending as audience members for each presentation and reduce some of the stress of a whole-class presentation.
Where possible move hard-copy portfolios online, for example in PebblePad.
For units that require physical artefacts, students can take photos of their work and add to their portfolio.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
Where these have been partially completed already, assessors will have to use professional judgment to decide whether sufficient evidence of achievement of the ILOs has been achieved already by the time of university closure.
If students are new to PebblePad, they will need support in navigating a new system. A template and/or examples would help students understand how to present their work.
Depending on the format of the existing portfolio, a low-tech solution such as inserting images of work into a word document, may be preferred in the short-term.
Viva Voce exams, e.g. for oral assessments in language learning:
These could readily be undertaken via Web Conferencing (Collaborate) in MyLO. Collaborate is the preferred platform because it is integrated into our learning management system and sessions can be recorded and saved in MyLO for moderation purposes.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
Students may need support in developing confidence to work virtually.
Practice sessions with you and/or their peers will support them to develop their confidence.
You may want to consider dropping this assessment completely. Sometimes, low-stakes assessment of tutorial participation (e.g. 10%) is included primarily to encourage students to attend and engage in the learning activities in the face-to-face class rather than as a core measure of achievement of the learning outcomes. In those situations, the assessment may be dropped.
Staff as well as students may need be supported to learn how to use this approach if it isn’t currently part of their normal learning experiences. Students should be given the opportunity to practice participation online before assessment.
Participation in discussion boards is another alternative, where these are taking the place of some face-to-face tutorials.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
Students should only be required to all post to the same discussion or respond to others’ posts where there is the potential for them to provide unique perspectives or make different contributions. It is not helpful for students to be required to respond to the same topic when a single correct answer or summary is requested.
It may be possible to replicate some aspects of lab work through simulations in which students are presented with data sets and required to interpret them. Often this means focusing on interpretation of data rather than working in the lab to achieve the results personally.
Simulations can also be used remotely so students can ‘see’ data produced elsewhere and be asked to comment/interpret.
For example, low-fidelity simulations can be used some health care settings, where students are asked to respond to patient data rather than high-fidelity simulated patients.[ii]
To assure standards you might need to consider:
If students can be provided with different data sets for personal interpretation, this can mitigate the risk of ‘over-sharing’.
You can potentially use a digital infographic, mind map or other visuals which can be submitted through Assignments in MyLO, or posted in shared spaces, particularly if peer review is required. Many tools support narration.
Where posters need to be presented, students could video or audio-record themselves explaining their poster, or provide a transcript.
Where students have access or preference to create a hard-copy poster, a high-quality photograph could be submitted.
Microsoft Publisher is one option for students to use, and is available to them as part of the Office 365 suite.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
You may wish to supplement the poster submission with a short online oral interview or recorded presentation, where greater validation of the submitter is desired.
Any instructions need to be consistent to ensure fairness.
It may be possible for students to submit digital portfolios containing, for example, videos of themselves performing a range of practical tasks.
Where OSCEs can be converted in scenarios and/or digital artefacts, an interview with a random allocation of scenario or artefact might be possible. Students could be provided with their scenario, given a short time to prepare, then asked to respond via Web Conferencing in MyLO.
To assure standards you might need to consider:
It will be essential to follow professional body advice and guidance when considering redesigning or replacing OSCEs. ITt may be necessary to hold over those portions of a unit that required OSCE examination.
This may be problematic in professional disciplines where the achievement of specific capabilities is required at 100% e.g. Nursing, drugs calculations.
As for any suggested uses of Web Conferencing, students and staff need opportunities to develop confidence in using the tool.
At introductory levels, it might be possible for students to respond to scenarios or videos. Depending on the discipline, video material might be created by discipline experts modelling behaviours[iii], or sourced from existing observations, online sources or even excerpts from movies or television shows.
Some professions for which placements are required will themselves be moving into the online space for delivery of their services and application of their professional skills. There is the opportunity for new placements to be created that are facilitated online. Placements may also be created that directly respond to the COVID-19 situation, focussed on individual and community benefit.
There are many assessment task designs that enable students to demonstrate learning in more depth than is possible in an exam. Expand each section for examples of different assessment tasks. The choice of appropriate assessment task depends on the learning outcomes you are trying to measure.
Expand a section below to see some specific examples of that assessment type.
It is recommended to ask fewer but higher-level questions that require the student to draw on a broad range of unit concepts; engaging them in scholarly conversation as they negotiate answering a series of complex, related questions and thus assessing higher-order learning.
Dealing with anxiety – You could offer an opportunity for a second interview if a student “fails” and is unable to demonstrate attainment of the learning outcomes during the oral exam. They can be asked to study more on those section/constructs and asked relevant questions at follow-up. Needing a follow-up would impact a student’s grade but not their chance to pass the unit. This approach is likely to reduce students’ stress about the oral exam. At the end of the day, more students will have achieved the necessary learning – the core aim of the unit.
Another approach to oral exams is to develop a large set of questions (20-30) and each student is randomly allocated 2 or 3 questions, then given time to consider their answers (e.g., 15 minutes) before the interview is conducted by committee. The committee can “help” by asking leading questions.
Oral exams may be too time-consuming for large classes but are an option for smaller classes.
There are wide-ranging options for the source materials for a critical review, including: scientific articles, podcasts, depictions of issues or topics in popular media, infographics, etc.
Individual reflections on research/learning/ etc.
Annotated bibliographies, literature reviews and debate positions are just some of the formats a critical review could take.
Asking students to write test questions, provide peer feedback or develop guidance for other students can be powerful learning experiences, as well as a method to assess understanding. An alternative to a standard exam could be to ask the students to write the questions.
For example, you could ask students to:
Create a series multiple-choice questions to cover a particular topic, or design an open book exam question
Write a problem-solving test with solutions.
Create a case study
Review another student’s essay or assessment against clear criteria and/or using the rubric
Create a series of interview questions for a specific job or topic
Rate other students’ multiple-choice questions
Create a questionnaire about a specific topic
Develop a “how to” sheet for a process or to solve particular problems
Give students a selection of movie titles. Ask them to watch one or two of them and write a brief summary of how (the course topic/theme) is reflected/represented/portrayed in the movie.
Have students take a photo(s) with their phone or select an image(s) from one of the following free websites providing free public domain images (no restrictions, no attribution required) to represent their understanding of a concept or an idea. Have students write or audio or videorecord how it represents their understanding.
Unsplash.com – big, beautiful photography, limited selection but gorgeous
Pexels.com – overlaps with Unsplash, but also includes big, beautiful photography, some stock photography
Pixabay.com – stock photography (a bit cheesy) as well as graphics and vectors useful for schematic representations
Flaticon.com – b&w as well as color icons useful for schematic representations; Note this site requires you to attribute if you don’t have a subscription
Google images – a good way to search multiple sources but make sure to filter to view only openly licensed images (click tools, then choose the appropriate the appropriate 'labelled for reuse' usage rights option), and attribute where required
Have students do discipline-specific research, then create an infographic. For example, psychology students could create a cheat sheet of tips to maintain mental wellness or avoid loneliness.
A podcast is a series of audio recordings that a user can download and listen at their own pace. The podcast usually features one or more hosts talking about a specific topic. Many podcasts include information such as an associated website with links and show notes, transcripts, additional resources, and additional commentary. This is a task you could ask students to complete individually or as a group. Each student ‘host’ would contribute different perspectives or information to the podcast, helping to clarify group roles.
Aiming for authenticity:
Ask students to write or present in a format that is relevant to the discipline or profession in which they’re learning. What does an authentic assessment look like for your discipline? Is it a position paper, pitch, hand-over notes, grant proposal, etc?
Students record a video of themselves delivering a “pitch”; an authentic task which may consolidate learning in the unit and also minimise opportunities for plagiarism.
Open book tests simulate work environments better and are lower stress than closed-book exams. Students can use the resources available to them in in the real word, such as books, reference materials and the internet.
Scenarios and case-studies can be chosen by the teacher, with a set of questions to guide student analysis and response. Alternatively, you could ask students to:
Search for 2-3 relevant case studies and justify why they are useful.
Read a case study and create 5-7 questions to aid reflection on the case study.
Portfolios can be designed to assess different aspects of learning.
Portfolios demonstrating the process of design and development or creative practice are common in visual arts.
Students can be asked to curate their own work examples (from learning activities and previous assessment tasks) that they feel best demonstrate their attainment of the learning outcomes, and to justify their selections.
Portfolios can be used to demonstrate progress towards, and achievement of, topic or course objectives. Portfolio focus on higher order thinking and ability to synthesise information and evidence, and leave room for creativity.
Portfolios can include real world tasks making them a valid and authentic assessment format.
Students have to accept a high degree of responsibility so it is empowering.
Ask students to synthesise concepts from course readings, class discussion and any other experiences they have had related to the course and create an artefact (a model, a photo, a collage, a poem, a short story, a cartoon, a drawing, a painting). Objects can be submitted as photos.
One minute (or 30 second) pitches:
Students create a 1-minute audio recording or video or 125 word written response, pitching an idea or explaining a concept you're assessing them on. You may have students answer "what's the most important thing to know about ____ topic." It's much harder to create a 30 second presentation than an 8-minute one, because students must think about what's the most vital thing the audience needs to know.
100 words or less:
Have students select 2 or 3 new popular media sources writing on a selected topic. Have them create a one-page document synthesising the varied perspectives. Ask students to write a 100-word summary.
Road-map
Have students write a 4-page road map of what they’ve learned from the unit if they were to explain it to a student who hasn’t yet taken it.
TEQSA Online learning good practice has lists of resources covering a range of topics related to online learning. Of particular relevance to the choice of alternative assessment strategies is the Assessment Integrity page.
The FLIPCurric website has a searchable page of Powerful Assessment Exemplars. The FlipCurric project examined assessment quality in Australian Universities, with a particular focus on assessment that supports the development of “work-ready plus” graduates.
General considerations
It is possible to produce alternative assessment designs that are equivalent to (and may even improve on) a current assessment. However it is important to remember that both staff and students may be working outside their comfort zones, and to proactively provide support to those struggling to adjust.
As with all forms of assessment, reasonable adjustments will still be needed for students with temporary or long-term health conditions, disabilities and additional needs.
Please bear in mind the need to clearly communicate expectations and,where possible, provide accompanying marking criteria and examples.
Further resources and discussion The University of Tasmania’s community of Educational Developers have provided answers to Frequently Asked Questions about technologies to support your students’ learning. They are also providing a curated list of links to resources. It is a good place to check if you have questions or are looking for further ideas.
Professional learning
Resources and guides
The Online Teaching FAQs on this Teaching and Learning website provides answers to technology related questions for the technologies currently supported at UTAS.
The rapid pivot to online learning due to the COVID19 pandemic is seeing a significant shift in the mix of assessment modalities. This shift is seeing greater use of non-invigilated assessment with this there is the potential for an increase contract cheating activity. This session will explore research conducted into the practical steps that can be taken in up-skilling academic staff in detecting and addressing contract cheating in unsupervised assessment tasks.
Presenter: A/Prof Phillip Dawson, Deakin University, Australia. Host: Professor Geoffrey Crisp, DVC Academic, University of Canberra
Concerns about academic integrity and student engagement have been tightened with the rapid COVID-19 induced shift to online teaching and the need to use alternate assessments to that of traditional exams. This session explores an approach to interactive online oral assessment can be used to create engaging, authentic assessment experiences for students. Interactive orals are especially useful in the current COVID-19 context because they can be conducted online and offer a viable alternative to exams. The session will explore examples from the Griffith Business School at Griffith University and data collected from students on academic integrity. The use of evidence-based assessment design has seen benefits in enhanced student engagement, employability and academic integrity in undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Presenters: Danielle Logan, Popi Sotiriadou and Rae Jobst (Griffith University, Australia)
Supporting online teachers and students — Webinar series with NCSEHE Equity Fellows Dr Cathy Stone and Dr Nicole Crawford (UTAS).
The NCSEHE will partner with the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) for two webinars presented by Cathy Stone and Nicole Crawford.
In these unfamiliar times, universities are suddenly needing to move face-to-face courses online. The presenters have previously written that this can be a tall order, even for experienced educators. However, including the “three essentials” that this webinar outlines means that even a hastily-developed online course can still deliver an effective and engaging learning experience for students.
With the need to quickly convert face-to-face classes, guidelines developed from recent Australian research can offer some direction. This webinar talks more about these three essentials and ways they can be delivered.
[ii] Say, R., Betihavas, V., Visentin, D., & Minutillo, S. (2018, November). Designing low-fidelity simulation: A cognitive load theory approach. Paper Presented at the 17th Teaching Matters Conference, Pathways to Teaching Excellence, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia: University of Tasmania.
[iii] Cooper, J. F., Macartney, M. J., & Namasivayam, P. (2019, November). Improving recognition and application of clinical reasoning in nursing practice using a multi-modal simulation activity. Paper presented at 18th Teaching Matters Conference: Our distinctive future. Hobart, Australia: University of Tasmania.
Time-constrained unseen exams in invigilated exam rooms or in-class tests:
In-class presentations where students speak to an audience of their peers/others and are assessed not only on the content but also their presentation techniques:
Portfolio, logbook or assessment notebook:
Viva Voce exams, e.g. for oral assessments in language learning:
Participation in tutorials and workshops:
Lab work:
Posters:
Peer assessments and support:
Face-to-face feedback:
Theatre, dance and other performances:
Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) and test requiring students to demonstrate a range of skills:
Placements:
Exploring understanding:
Involving students:
Getting creative:
Aiming for authenticity:
Bringing it all together:
More:
