Proposed changes to Deakin’s assessment and academic integrity policies – tell us what you think
Following extensive discussion with students and staff, the University has drafted several changes to key policies and procedures relating to assessment and academic integrity. The implementation of these proposed changes will affect how your unit content is delivered, how your work is assessed and the process in which standards of academic integrity are upheld.
We now invite all students to provide feedback on proposed revisions to the following policies and procedures – read on to see how you can have your say.
Changes to the Assessment Procedure
Assessment is a critical aspect of your learning journey. The newly revised Assessment Procedure aims to ensure Deakin embraces best practice in the design and delivery of assessment in higher education learning and teaching, and continues to improve the student learning experience. Proposed changes include:
- Improved headings and definitions: For enhanced navigation and clarity, especially regarding recent language changes around ‘exams’ and ‘end-of-unit assessments’.
- Online exams, end of unit assessments and/or quizzes: Unsupervised and automatically computer-marked assessments will not comprise more than 20% of the total unit mark; the combined weight of supervised and unsupervised automatically computer-marked questions will not comprise more than 60% of the total unit mark; and ‘true/false’ questions will no longer be allowed. Some exemptions may be allowed with strong justification.
- Extensions: The maximum length of an extension has been reduced to seven days, while students with an Access Plan may be granted an extension of up to 10 days. If a student requires a longer extension or cannot apply for an extension by the due date, they should apply for special consideration.
- Number of assessments: A maximum number of five summative assessment tasks per unit has been introduced (although a single assessment task may comprise different parts).
- Assessment instructions and rubrics: These materials must be made available at least three weeks before the due date, with the exception of end of unit assessments and exams.
- Feedback: Where practicable, Unit Chairs will be required to provided general feedback on assessment tasks via the unit site within 15 University working days from the due date.
- Late penalties: Without an approved extension, a marking penalty of 5% of total marks will be deducted for each day for up to seven calendar days, compared to five calendar days in the previous procedure. Where work is not received after seven calendar days after the due date, the student will receive 0% for the task.
- Student requests for assessment remarking: A student must request a remark of an assessment by a Unit Chair within five University working days of the release of the mark and must also provide evidence of the assessment was not marked in accordance with the marking criteria.
For full details of the changes, view this video which outlines the rationale for each revision.
Changes to the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
Academic integrity is one of the foundations of our University culture. It relates to creating and submitting your work in an honest and fair way, acting and communicating ethically, and showing respect for the work of others. The newly revised Student Academic Integrity Policy, Student Academic Integrity Procedure (including Schedule A) outlines the following changes:
- Updated academic integrity breach definitions: Revisions include the use of file-sharing sites as an academic integrity breach.
- A formal early intervention process: Where students in their first year are not intentionally breaching academic integrity standards (for example, through poor referencing and paraphrasing), the revised procedure allows a Unit Chair to ask students to resubmit the work (marks may be capped) and encourages the student to engage with University academic skills support resources.
- Standardised outcomes: The procedure and associated Schedule of Outcomes (Schedule A) now contain standard outcomes for different types of student academic integrity breaches. This means students can accept the standard outcome or ask for a review meeting to discuss what happened.
- Graduate skills: A renewed focus on ensuring students understand the need for integrity in their future profession and how academic integrity at university leads to this.
Ready to have your say?
We encourage you to have your say on the proposed changes. Read the revised policy and procedure documents and email any feedback to [email protected] by COB 22 July 2022.
If you would like to attend an online session on Wednesday 13 July (4–5pm) OR Friday 15 July (2–3pm), to discuss your feedback on the Student Academic Integrity policy and procedure revisions only, please email [email protected] for Zoom details.
Got any questions?
Email Dr Kelli Nicola-Richmond at [email protected] with questions about the Assessment revisions, or Associate Professor Nick Milne at [email protected] regarding the Student Academic Integrity revisions.