Many beginning students at WSU do not fit the traditional model of the well-prepared school leaver, and may experience difficulties in the transition to university study. As assessment and feedback are major issues for students (Boud & Molloy, 2013) the first experience of assessment can be confusing, leading to high levels of anxiety. The principle that assessment should be fair \u2013 achievable within the allocated time frame with the available resources \u2013 applies here as with all assessment. The first experience of assessment for a subject, particularly at the beginning of first year, needs to be supported to ensure that students are not confused by the requirements of the assessment tasks or feel they do not have the resources to undertake it. An early low-stakes assessment can provide formative feedback for students on their performance and aspects they may need to address. This also provides a diagnostic tool for academic staff as it can reveal students who may be at risk of failure due to deficiencies in background knowledge, study habits or intellectual skills. Formative feedback can alert students to their own level of preparedness. Support processes on study skills may be built into the subject material to aid transition. It has been reported that many of the WSU subjects identified as having a high failure rate do not include an early low-stakes assessment task. When this is missing, students and staff may not know till late in the semester that there are students who are having difficulties with the unit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Added to the assessment policy: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Section Provides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What you will need: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your subject learning guide <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Transition\u00a0and Retention Toolkit for Unit Coordinators<\/a> may be helpful. In particular\u00a0see the ‘How can I design assessments to support student transition?<\/a>‘ section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Implementation process:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While feedback on the initial assessment task may indicate that support is needed, try to avoid classifying students in accordance with a deficit model. All students need to learn and improve \u2013 that\u2019s what it means to be a student. Try to identify and present ongoing support as a natural part of study for the subject rather than an imposition on those students who lack the level of intellectual development needed. There is more information regarding providing constructive feedback to students in the \u201cGuided\u201d section of this assessment guide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Boud, D. and Molloy, E. (2013). Rethinking models of feedback for learning: the challenge of Design. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, <\/em>38, 6, 698-712. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kift, S. (2009). Articulating a transition pedagogy to scaffold and to enhance the first year student learning experience in Australian higher education<\/em>. Final Report for ALTC Senior Fellowship Program, Queensland University of Technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kift, S., & Field, R. M. (2009). Intentional first year curriculum design as a means of facilitating student engagement: some exemplars<\/em>. Paper presented at the 12th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference. \u201cPreparing for Tomorrow Today : The First Year Experience as Foundation.\u201d, Townsville, Queensland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n McInnis, C., James, R., & Hartley, R. (2000). Trends in the First Year Experience In Australian Universities<\/em>. Retrieved from Canberra: Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nelson, K., Clarke, J., Kift, S., & Creagh, T. A. (2011). Trends in policies, programs and practices in the Australasian first year experience literature 2000-2010. (The First Year in Higher Education Research Series on Evidence-based Practice, No. 1)<\/em>. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overview Many beginning students at WSU do not fit the traditional model of the well-prepared school leaver, and may experience difficulties in the transition to university study. As assessment and feedback are major issues for students (Boud & Molloy, 2013) the first experience of assessment can be confusing, leading to high levels of anxiety. The principle that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"parent":2,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/412"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lf.westernsydney.edu.au\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Resources <\/h2>\n\n\n\n