Assessment and Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures
The new Assessment and Academic Integrity Policy comes into full effect on 1 January 2021. To support you during this period of change, we've outlined key information and changes that are associated with the seven procedures and what they may mean for your work.
There are different implications depending on your role, for example, whether you are a chief examiner, unit coordinator or academic staff member or if you are a professional staff member who supports education.
The scope of this policy includes all students, all locations (including all our overseas teaching locations, online) and all coursework units, including those taken by students in graduate research degrees. Students enrolled at the former Monash South Africa campus are not in scope and the previous policy and procedures will apply.
For support with these policy changes please contact us at assessment@monash.edu.
The policy and all the procedures are available on the policy bank.
View key information and changes within each procedure:
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Assessment Regime Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Assessment Regime Procedure can be viewed here.
Assessment regime
- The assessment regime (and amendments to it) are approved by the Dean (or delegate) at time of unit approval and must be followed in all subsequent teaching periods until an amendment is approved (Section 1.7).
- The summary regime is required in the Handbook with the full assessment details required in Moodle (Section 7.1, Table 1).
- Where the assessment regime is one task worth 100%, feedback must be provided by the midpoint of the teaching period (Section 1.3).
- If an assessment task requires attendance it will be stated in Moodle. Attendance can only be required for external accreditation or regulatory requirements (Section 1.4).
- Students will not be able to resubmit tasks (except where directed by the Regulations, i.e. for breaching academic integrity or as part of supplementary assessment). Students who repeat a unit cannot submit work that they submitted previously (Section 1.5).
Implementing assessment
- Electronic submission and the use of text-matching software is required where the format of the assessment allows it (Section 2.8.6).
- Assessment tasks must be designed to minimise potential for academic integrity breaches (Section 2.8.1).
- If a task is designed by one staff member, it needs to be validated by at least one other staff member to ensure it complies with assessment policy and procedures (Section 2.7).
- Assessment tasks must be renewed each teaching period to minimise the risk of cheating and ensure no student has an unfair advantage (e.g. students repeating the unit) (Section 2.8.2).
Setting assessment due dates
- Due dates for assessment tasks cannot be set during SWOTVac or the scheduled final assessment period, with noted exceptions that must be approved by the ADE (Section 3.5)
Extensions
- Students can apply to the CE for an extension in exceptional circumstances (e.g. illness, carer responsibilities or car accident) for up to 2 days. Students must apply for special consideration for longer extensions (Section 3.6).
- Extensions are not available for mid-semester tests, weekly (or biweekly) quizzes, scheduled final assessments or class tests (Section 3.6.2).
Hurdles
- A hurdle must demonstrate achievement of the specified learning outcomes. (Section 4.2)
- If any hurdle is not met, the student fails the unit (Section 4.12).
- Competency hurdle is a professional skill requirement that must be successfully completed (Section 4.5).
- Threshold hurdle means the student must gain at least 45% in the task (Section 4.7, 4.8).
- The grade of NH (Fail Hurdle) and a mark of 45 will be given when a student fails a hurdle requirement, but would have otherwise passed the unit (Section 4.12, 4.12.2)
Supplementary assessment
- Supplementary assessment is granted by the Board of Examiners and students cannot apply for it (Section 5.1).
- It is not available for units taken more than 12 months previously (Section 5.5).
Assessment adjustments (alternative arrangements)
The procedure outlines:
- Clear timelines for students to apply for adjustments to assessments (Section 6.3, 6.4, 6.17).
- Clear guidance on how assessments can be adjusted (Section 6.8).
- The responsibilities of students, CE and DSS (Section 6).
- How to access reports: Staff with specific roles (an administrator, lecturer or non-primary lecturer role) for the unit can access the alternative assessment arrangements reports in Callista and Moodle (Section 6.16).
Communicating assessment requirements
- All references to assessment details throughout current policies have been consolidated into a table to make clear the requirements for when and how assessment requirements must be communicated to students, whether in the Handbook or Moodle (Section 7.1).
Academic Integrity Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Student Academic Integrity Procedure can be viewed here.
Responsibilities
- Let your students know about the academic integrity expectations at orientation and at the start of every unit (section 1.4), including:
- Library resources
- faculty services and resources
- correct academic practice for the discipline (e.g. referencing, collaboration)
- All students are required to complete a compulsory module on academic integrity (Section 1.10).
- Electronic submission and the use of text-matching software is required where the format of the assessment allows it (Section 1.5)
Types of breaches
- Academic integrity breaches include: plagiarism, collusion, resubmission, contract cheating, fraud, unauthorised distribution of course-related materials, scheduled final assessments misconduct (Section 2.4-2.10, Table 1).
Dealing with suspected breaches
- Apply the principles of natural justice when dealing with students on academic integrity (section 3.1):
- Inform students of the process being followed and any variation to process
- Inform students of allegations and evidence and give them reasonable opportunity to respond
- Ensure decisions are made by unbiased decision maker, based only on relevant evidence
- Breaches of academic integrity may be due to poor academic practice (unintentional and minor) or academic misconduct (serious and either intentional or reckless) (Section 3.11, 3.12).
Educative response to poor academic practice
- For poor academic practice, the student will be counselled in good academic practice, referred to undertake skills development and warned about the consequences of academic misconduct (Section 4.1).
- Marking appropriately for poor academic practice is not a penalty but a consequence of the poor work (Section 4.2)
Allegations of misconduct
- Allegations of academic misconduct are referred to the responsible officer and handled as described in the Student Academic Misconduct Procedure and the discipline regulations (Section 1.2, 1.8).
Academic Integrity register
- A central register is in place for recording allegations and findings of misconduct and warnings issued to students (Section 5.1).
- When you issue a warning, you need to copy it to the faculty Academic Integrity Officer, who will record it on the register (Section 5.1, 5.2).
New templates
- Academic integrity templates provide minimum information that must be communicated to students at different stages of the academic integrity process (Section 3.7, 4.1).
Staff AI module
- The staff module defines academic integrity, outlines staff roles and responsibilities and shows how to detect and handle breaches (Section 1.7).
Academic Misconduct Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Student Academic Misconduct Procedure can be viewed here.
Principles for decision making
- The Responsible Officer (RO) is bound by rules of natural justice (Section 2.3).
- Burden of proof is reasonable probability not beyond reasonable doubt (Section 2.6).
- How to consider and use evidence (Section 2.4, 2.5)
- Office of Student Conduct (SEBS) will support RO in academic misconduct matters (Section 2.11)
Reports of academic misconduct
- Reports are referred via an online form managed by Office of Student Conduct (Section 3.1)
- Academic misconduct hearings are now heard by a Student Misconduct Panel coordinated by the Office of Student Conduct (SEBS) (Section 3.6, 3.7).
Determining allegations of misconduct
- New templates are in use for notices of allegation and decision (section 4.3, 4.4, 6.1).
Penalties and outcomes
- The descriptions and effects of penalties are described (Section 5.4).
- Penalties can be suspended (Section 5.5)
- All possible outcomes relating to an allegation of misconduct are outlined (Section 5.6, 5.7).
Record keeping
- Office of Student Conduct will now enter misconduct data on the central academic integrity register (Section 8.4)
Marking and Feedback Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Marking and Feedback Procedure can be viewed here.
Quality assurance in marking
- The CE is responsible for putting processes in place to ensure all assessments are marked fairly and consistently across all markers, modes and teaching locations (Section 1.1, 2.3).
- An annual report will be provided to BOE including any recommendations to improve consistency (Section 2.3).
- Marking must be completed on time so that timely feedback can be given to students (Section 1.2, 3.4).
- If a breach in academic integrity is picked up, marking should stop and the matter is referred to the CE or nominee for academic integrity (Section 1.5).
Blind marking
- All written invigilated assessments must be blind marked (all non-invigilated, where practicable) (Section 1.6).
- Where it is impracticable or unreasonable to blind mark, the CE is responsible for ensuring other processes are in place to minimise the risk of unintentional bias (Section 1.8).
- When an assessment is double marked, a process is in place for when two markers disagree on the mark for an assessment (Section 1.9).
Marking penalties
- Students who submit an assessment task after the due date will receive a late penalty of 10% of the available marks per day. Exceptions to this penalty must be communicated to students in Moodle (Section 1.11).
Release of marks
- Marks for scheduled final assessments will not be released to students (Section 1.15).
Feedback
- Effective feedback must accompany the mark and explanation for the mark given for the assessment (Section 3.3).
- Students must be provided with feedback within 10 working days of the assessment submission deadline or, if an extension is granted, within 10 working days of the extended date. Alternate timelines can be specified in Moodle (Section 3.9).
- All students must be provided with feedback early in the teaching period (before the midpoint) (Section 3.10).
- Students must be provided with effective feedback for assessment tasks that relate to the subject matter in the final assessment before the final assessment or commencement of the scheduled final assessment period (Section 3.11).
- Students can access additional feedback, after they have accessed all forms from feedback available to them (Section 3.13).
Final assessment feedback
- Students can apply to the teaching faculty after results are released for the teaching period and before the end of the first week of the subsequent teaching period (Section 3.16, 3.18).
- A staff member who is not the marker must be present at the viewing with the student (Section 3.19).
Verifying fail grades
- All major assessment tasks, including scheduled final assessments, with a fail grade must be double marked by the teaching faculty before the result is released (Section 4.1).
- Where the double marking is impractical, the assessment can be second marked (Section 4.1.2).
Scaling
- Marks can only be scaled when a review of student performance on an assessment task, or part thereof, indicates that the task did not appropriately assess the unit learning outcomes or that the difficulty level of the assessment was too high (Section 4.4).
- No student can be disadvantaged by scaling (Section 4.6).
- The CE is responsible for making a recommendation to BOE to scale student marks. Scaling is approved by the BOE (Section 4.3).
CE reports to the BOE
- Summary of the reports the CE provides to the BOE (Section 4.9, 4.10):
- Methods used to detect breaches in academic integrity, if the assessment was not submitted through a similarity detection system.
- Additional assessments granted.
- Description of equivalence and marking methods used to ensure consistency for all assessment tasks.
- Recommendations and rationale to scale student marks.
- Variations to new standard grade distribution.
Amending final results
- The Dean (or delegate) of the teaching faculty must approve any amendments if the chair of the BOE is also the CE of a unit (Section 4.18).
Student requests for remarking
- Students can apply to have an assessment remarked due to an error only within a set timeframe (different timeline for assessments and final assessments) (Section 5.1, 5.4).
- Students unhappy with the academic judgement used to mark their assessment should access additional feedback. If they are still unhappy, they must follow the complaints process (Section 5.7).
Security and record keeping
- All staff involved in assessment must keep student work (including notes, cover sheets, marks) secure (Section 6.1).
- Documents can be destroyed in the timelines required by Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Higher Education Functions, section 2.3 (Section 6.1).
- Suspected breaches of assessment security must be reported to the CE (Section 6.3).
Grading Schema Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Grading Schema Procedure can be viewed here.
Release of results
- When results are released, all units must have either a final grade or an interim grade recorded. There are specific dates that interim grades must be converted to final grades (Section 1.2).
Grading schemas
- There are a number of grading schemas (Section 2.1, 2.2, Table 1):
- standard grading schemas
- competency grading schemas
- honours grading schemas
- graduate research grading schema
- The grade descriptors have been revised (Section 2.2, Table 1).
Honours degree grading schema
- A standard mark range for all honours course grades applies. This applies to one-year honours degrees and bachelor honours degrees of four or more years (Section 4.2).
- Third class honours grade has been removed from the schema and is replaced with a pass grade (50 to <60) (Section 4.2).
- These changes apply to all students commencing an honours degree on or after 1 January 2020 (Section 4).
WAM calculation used for honours course grades
- There are standard calculations used for one-year honours and bachelor honours degrees of four years or more. These changes apply to all students who commence an honours degree on or after 1 January 2020 (Section 5.2, 5.3).
Special Consideration Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Special Consideration Procedure can be viewed here.
Exceptional circumstances expanded and includes
- The procedure includes descriptions of exceptional circumstances but it is not an exhaustive list (Section 1.2, Table 1). New circumstances added to the list include:
- Student performers: those registered in the Elite performer scheme
- religious/cultural obligations,
- hardship and trauma
Evidence
- Students are required to provide evidence to support their application (Section 2.1).
- The procedure details the evidence required (Section 2.2, 2.6).
- Evidence provided by the student must be in English, other documentation can be accompanied by an authorised translation (Section 2.1).
- Table 1: Changes include:
- medical certificates following consultations between the student and health professional. This includes video consultations with telehealth services;
- letter or document from the Monash safer community unit, a district or maternal and child care nurse, a family violence support service can be used as evidence for family or relationship breakdown related applications
Application and response deadlines
- Students have specific deadlines to submit applications. There are different deadlines for scheduled final assessment related applications (Section 3.1, 3.4).
- During the teaching period, students will be notified of the application outcome within three days, unless longer is needed. If a longer period is needed, the student will be notified within an additional five days (Section 5.1).
- During scheduled final assessments, students will be notified of the outcome within two days (Section 5.2)
Application outcomes
- The outcomes of a special consideration application are (section 6.1):
- a deferred assessment
- an alternative and equivalent assessment
- an extension to a submission date
- the application is denied
Applications for group assessments
- For group assessment tasks, where one or more members of the group has applied for and is granted special consideration, the following will be taken into consideration (Section 3.5):
- whether an alternative assessment task can be given to the affected student/s;
- the method for marking the work of the remaining team members; and
- whether the full group will be granted an extension.
Rescheduled deferred assessments
- An approved special consideration application may result in a deferred assessment. Students can apply to reschedule a deferred assessment only once (Section 4.2).
- After the rescheduled date, if the student has not sat or submitted the final assessment, the interim grade will be converted to a final grade and the mark will be calculated on the completed assessment tasks of the unit (Section 7.12.2).
Scheduled Final Assessments Procedure
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You will find key information and changes below. The full Scheduled Final Assessments Procedure can be viewed here.
Scope
- The term ‘examination’ has been replaced by ‘scheduled final assessment’
- The procedure includes processes for centrally managed final assessments (those managed by eSolutions) and faculty managed final assessments (those managed by the faculty, school or department).
Final assessment checklist
- In addition to any faculty checklists, the university style guide must be used to proofread final assessments.
Supplementary assessment
- Supplementary assessment is granted by the Board of Examiners and students cannot apply for it. It is not available for units taken more than 12 months previously.
Use of materials and equipment
- The units Moodle site and the final assessment must list any authorised material or equipment.
- Students who bring unauthorised material may be in breach of student discipline or academic integrity.
Rescheduling or cancelling final assessments
- The University may reschedule or cancel final assessments in the interest of safety or where a venue or delivery infrastructure or service is no longer available.
Security and record keeping
- CE and any staff involved in final assessments are responsible for keeping questions and marking guides secure.
- eSolutions record student attendance at centrally managed exams and send the records to faculties to retain the record for at least 6 months after the release of results.
- Suspected breaches of assessment security must be reported to the CE.
Reporting requirements
The DVCE will report twice yearly on the final assessments periods, including:
- faculties with a majority of final assessments longer than 2 hours and 10 minutes
- any final assessment errors
- any other aspects of the scheduled final assessment process.