UNSW Assessment as Learning Toolkit

Welcome to the Assessment Toolkit. Here you will find an evolving collection of practical resources to help you with assessment. The Premise throughout this Toolkit is that assessment should focus primarily on learning and the achievement of intended learning outcomes. This reflects the premise on which the UNSW Assessment Policy is based.

Assessment resources include:

For a list of all topics covered, see our index of resources or search below:

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Please use the keyword search above to find pages: Showing 1 - 12 of 45 resources

Aligning Assessment with Outcomes

Aligning assessment with intended course learning outcomes is crucial to assessment as learning. Learning outcomes prescribe what students are expected to demonstrate they have learned. The…

Assessing Authentically

Authentic assessment focuses on students using and applying knowledge and skills in real-life settings. Assessing authentically helps students contextualise their learning and to see how real-life…

Assessing by Capstone Project

Final-year students, when making the transition from university to the workplace or to further study, need to make sense of the learning they've gained throughout their whole program of study. Many…

Assessing by Discussion Board

A discussion board is an online communication tool that lets students and teachers take part in discussion in a virtual environment. It creates a virtual community of enquiry, allowing peer-to…

Assessing by Extended Writing

Extended writing tasks are text-based assignments that involve: research and critical reading from multiple sources of information and ideas the development of a sustained and well…

Assessing by Group Work

Group work with a valid purpose, when thoughtfully managed with explicit rubrics and marking guidelines, can provide many benefits to students. This is especially so for first-year students, as group…

Assessing by Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice question (MCQ) tests can be useful for formative assessment and to stimulate students' active and self-managed learning. They improve students' learning performance and their…

Assessing by Portfolio

At its simplest, a portfolio, whether in hard copy or digital form, is a collection of artefacts with a coherent structure and a guide to that structure, such as a contents page. As a learning and…

Assessing First-Year Students

Overview All students starting to learn at university, no matter what their background, need a thorough and compassionat introduction to the distinctive assessment conventions of tertiary study…

Assessing Global Citizenship

A central tenet of the UNSW approach to graduate capabilities is that all UNSW programs aspire to develop globally focused graduates who are rigorous scholars, capable of leadership and professional…

Assessing Graduate Capabilities

UNSW has set out desired learning outcomes, or Graduate Capabilities, for all UNSW students. These graduate capabilities are embedded in the design of programs and courses, and their assessment…

Assessing Inclusively

Inclusive assessment aims to provide equal academic opportunities for all students. It acknowledges that some students have characteristics, distinct from their academic ability, which can make it…