Consider the role of hurdles in assessment
Phasing out of threshold hurdles - from 1 March 2025All faculties with units that currently use threshold hurdles should review these units as per the timeline below. Units that do not align with the purpose of a competency hurdle as described on this page, should remove the hurdle from the unit and update Moodle and other systems accordingly.
Find out more - Assessment Regime Procedure (Section 4) |
In line with the University’s programmatic approach to assessment a review of the Assessment Regime Procedure has been undertaken to ensure courses have the capability to implement programmatic approaches to assessment.
One of the key principles of programmatic assessment is making equitable and credible decision-making around students' performance and their progress. Competency hurdles can be an important part of programmatic assessment when they are used to highlight critical skills or capabilities that students need to achieve course learning outcomes or for making decisions on student progression.
Competency hurdles should be included in the assessment regime where it is essential to measure achievement of critical skills or capabilities to make course progression decisions, or needed for professional accreditation purposes. This page provides guidance and examples of how to appropriately use hurdles as part of an assessment regime.
What is a competency hurdle?
Competency hurdles are assessment tasks that are necessary to demonstrate the achievement of specific course or unit learning outcomes or capabilities. Competency hurdle assessments focus on the application of knowledge, performance of skills and attitudes, emphasizing practical performance and the ability to apply skills in real work or authentic simulated situations.
Competency hurdles can be part of an assessment regime when the mastery of application of knowledge, performance of skills or attitudes is essential before students progress to their next stage of learning. This is often required by external accreditation, with courses needing to demonstrate robust methods for assessing proficiency and strategies to manage remediation and further learning when these standards are not achieved.
How to design a competency hurdle
Ideally, competency hurdle assessments should be designed to include multiple methods to gather assessment evidence, as a single assessment alone may not provide an accurate picture of student learning. Because competency hurdles are designed to evaluate the achievement (or not) of outcomes or capabilities, the judgment of the achievement is typically binary - have students achieved the required standard or not. When a competency hurdle is designed to be pass/fail, a descriptive rubric may still be used to describe performance above the standard and below the standard.
While it is recommended to design competency hurdles to be pass/fail, the Monash Assessment Regime Procedure allows flexibility. The options for competency hurdles are to give a:
- Pass or fail mark for the hurdle, in which case the hurdle must not have a weighting.
- Numerical mark for the hurdle, in which case the hurdle must have a weighting.
In both cases the requirement to achieve the hurdle needs to be stated clearly.
Click on the tabs for example scenarios
| Assessment Regime | Achievement in each task |
|---|---|
| Quiz (30%) | 90% |
| Competency hurdle | PGO (student must achieve standard to pass the unit overall) |
| Task (30%) | 70% |
| Task (40%) | 75% |
Calculation of final mark: 0.3 x 90 + 0.3 x 70 + 0.4 x 75 = 78
If a weighted competency hurdle is used, the assessment must be given a numerical mark. See the example below for how to calculate the final mark in a unit.
| Assessment Regime | Achievement in each task |
|---|---|
| Quiz (20%) | 90% |
| Competency hurdle (30%) | 80% (student must achieve the standard of >60% for this task to achieve the hurdle) |
| Task (30%) | 70% |
| Task (20%) | 75% |
Calculation of final mark: 0.2 x 90 + 0.3 x 80 + 0.3 x 70 + 0.2 x 75 = 78
Failed competency hurdle attempt
If a student has completed and failed an assessment and it is a competency hurdle, the student must be offered at least one additional assessment. The number of additional attempts must be described in the Handbook and in Moodle. This is in line with programmatic assessment principles theme 1 and 3 where the assessment regime builds in feedback and opportunity for students to respond to feedback in further assessment as well as triangulation of assessment. A decision to fail a student should not be made on a single data point but rather performance across a number of assessments and students abilities to remediate.
If a student has failed the assessment after all additional attempts have been provided, the assessment must be double marked before the result is finalised.
Additional assessment | Where a student has completed and failed a competency hurdle, the CE must grant at least one additional assessment on the relevant learning outcomes of the competency hurdle. This should not be a full repeat of the assessment, unless the student has not been able to demonstrate any of the learning outcomes. A tailored assessment to achieve the required learning is recommended. Additional assessment should be set up by the CE as soon as possible. Students will be required to complete the additional assessment by the end of the teaching period of the unit. |
|---|---|
Additional assessment and special consideration | Special consideration is not available for additional assessment (similar to the rules for supplementary assessment). Students must complete the additional assessment in the timeframe set by the chief examiner or educator. |
Additional assessment and supplementary assessment | Additional assessment is available for students who complete and fail a competency hurdle. Supplementary assessment should not be provided to students who have failed a competency hurdle and all subsequent additional assessment opportunities for that hurdle, even if the overall unit result is in the 45-49 range, or above. To ensure only eligible students receive an NS grade and supplementary assessment, chief examiners or educators must identify all students who have failed a competency hurdle (including all additional assessment) in Manage Results prior to Board of Examiners by selecting the appropriate comment. |
Use of grading schema
The Competency Grading Schema (pass/fail) should be used when all assessment tasks in the unit are competency hurdles with no weighting. Where competency hurdles are weighted or used in combination with weighted assessment tasks in the overall unit assessment, the Standard Grading Schema (numerical mark, 0-100) should be used.
Where the Standard Grading Schema is used and a student achieves a final mark of 45 or above but has failed a competency hurdle, the final grade and mark will be Hurdle Fail (NH) 45, regardless of the numerical mark achieved in the non-hurdle assessment/s.