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Assessment SIG End of Year Newsletter

It’s been an exciting year of development in this first year of the English Australia Assessment SIG and we are shaping up for even more in 2020. Many thanks to those of you who have participated and contributed to the SIG activities so far. We began the year by inviting you to tell us what sort of topics you would like to see covered and based on your feedback, we ran a webinar on writing test specifications with Louise Fitzgerald in March 2019. There were 165 registrations, which was a pleasing start to the SIG.

In July, the University of Queensland hosted the UECA Assessment Symposium, organised by our own Assessment SIG convenor, Stephen Walker and his dedicated UQ staff. This year, the symposium stretched to a two-day event, with 16 assessment focused presentations on the Saturday, covering assessment development and validation, assessing productive skills, receptive skills and types of assessment. On the Sunday, delegates were treated to a focused item writing workshop presented by international freelance professional test writer, trainer and author, Pauline Cullen. Both days were extremely informative and well-received by participants.

Finally, in September, we hosted a workshop on designing rating descriptors for productive skills, with Ute Knoch from the University of Melbourne. The session was very well attended and the feedback highly positive.

The positive responses to the professional development opportunities we’ve offered so far is a good indication that we all appreciate exposure to professional approaches in assessment writing and development as well as the opportunity to speak to each other about ideas and experiences. We would very much like to continue in this vein for 2020 and once again, we invite you to let us know what is important to you. Please post a message on the LinkedIn Assessment SIG group page and let us know, or alternatively, message us via LinkedIn.

2020

For 2020, we have an awesome webinar planned for March when language assessment experts Dr Alistair Van Moere and Dr Jing Wei will be presenting on ways of comparing and linking test scores. Watch out for the March date to be confirmed early in the New Year!

We also have a third UECA assessment symposium planned for July 18th, 2020. This time, it’s on the glorious Gold Coast, so please work that one into your annual PD budget! And we would very much like to know whether our members in Sydney and Melbourne are interested in having a symposium, or workshop that people can attend locally. We would be happy to coordinate and assist to make this happen.

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to collaborating with you again in the new year.

Cara Dinneen        Hora Hedayati       Stephen Walker          

Direct Entry Programs SIG End of Year Newsletter

The Direct Entry Programs SIG was established 12 months ago, and with the year coming to a close, we wanted to reflect on the year that’s been and look ahead at what we have planned for 2020.

2019 Review 

VIC and NSW Local Forums

Following requests from members, the conveners organised two local forums in Melbourne and  Sydney. The first was held at CQUniversity (CQUEnglish) in Melbourne on the 25th of July, and had 22 attendees. A series of roundtable discussions were held on a variety of topics including benchmarking, assessments and academic integrity, syllabus design and teacher professional development. One theme that emerged was the need for a framework and support for standalone and TAFE colleges in the area of external referencing and benchmarking.

On the 15th of August, 30 members attended a local forum in Sydney hosted by UNSW Global. Brooke Donnelly (CET) gave an overview of the UECA benchmarking project before participants engaged in roundtable discussions on topics of topmost concern to their Centres e.g. external benchmarking, and what and how DEPs are assessing. The evening was a valuable opportunity for members to unpack these issues in person and provided a springboard for further discussion at the English Australia DEP SIG pre-conference workshop in September, which Sophie O’Keefe encouraged members to attend.

UECA Benchmarking Project

The final report from the UECA commissioned ERESIE Project, External Referencing of ELICOS Direct Entry Program Standards: UECA National Report 2019, authored by Associate Professor Thomas Roche of Southern Cross University and Dr Sara Booth of Online Peer Solutions, is now available for download here. The report summarises and discusses the outcomes and findings from the project, and also looks forward with a National Action Plan and recommendations for a second round of cross-institutional benchmarking.

Pre-Conference workshop

The pre-conference event was well attended with around 40 participants from around Australia. The theme was 'Exceeding Expectations in Direct Entry Programs' and focused on relevant sections of the updated ELICOS National Standards. The workshop was set up in a World Café style which afforded participants the opportunity to discuss ideas, share best practice from their own centres and learn directly from peers. Key discussion points included the design and mapping of course learning outcomes, benchmarking possibilities and the importance of results informing change, and the mix of academic skills and language in DE Programs and how they are assessed. It was interesting to learn the different approaches in this area and has led us to organize a webinar on this topic in the new year.

In the second part, Thomas Roche talked about the UECA benchmarking project and what was learnt from the process, and Cris Vega from TEQSA spoke about meeting the ELICOS standards and the sorts of evidence required. She also spoke about TEQSA’s ELICOS reaccreditation project which is due to be completed by June 2020.