Index
RMIT assessment policies
Put simply, assessment aims to judge what students have learned from their course. It should provide the opportunities for students to demonstrate their:
- knowledge
- skills
- professional attitudes
- competencies
- capabilities
- other goals of the course.
However assessment is a complex activity and an essential part of the learning and teaching process. It can encourage learning behaviours that focus on lower order and recall knowledge or it can foster the development of higher order knowledge and skills that lead towards lifelong learning skills. Therefore, good assessment practice doesn’t just happen. It is a deliberate activity that requires thoughtful and reflective teaching practice.
The RMIT Learning and Teaching Strategy 2007-2010 states that curricula at RMIT must:
- use capability (HE) or competency (VET) approaches contextualised in discipline, profession, or industry specific learning opportunities that are work or community relevant
- demonstrate alignment of learning outcomes with supportive learning activities, formative and summative assessment that is criterion referenced and valid (i.e. genuinely measures what it purports to measure).
There is also an expectation that staff will “use a variety of teaching and assessment strategies, carefully chosen to facilitate intended learning outcomes including appropriate educational technologies”.
These broad statements have significant implications for the way we design, develop and integrate assessment for learning at RMIT. Other strategic influences on development and design of assessment include:
- RMIT Overarching Assessment Principles
- RMIT Charter of Assessment.
Each topic in this Assessment section provides links to the RMIT Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual - an outcome of the work undertaken in the national Teaching Quality Indicators (TQI) Project. For more information please visit www.rmit.edu.au/tqi
Resources
- RMIT's Strategic Plan, Academic Plan and Learning and Teaching Strategy can all be accessed via the Strategies and priorities section of the University's learning and teaching website.
- Teaching Quality Indicators (TQI) project website
- The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) was commissioned by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee to develop the Assessing Learning in Australian Universities website.
Links to RMIT Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual
