12.1 Assessment in VCE OES

Assessment in VCE is a complex set of processes through which you as the teacher, and other teachers acting as assessors, determine a student’s overall attainment level within their chosen study. In our context, the VCE OES curriculum. As Collins (2011) states, “Assessment tends to drive curriculum, to decide what teachers and students will emphasise and choose to study, and to define what scope of freedom schools might have in their day-to-day activities” (p. 200). This statement is often correct within the VCE and individual subjects like VCE OES. Accordingly, when developing an assessment program as part of your VCE OES course, it is important that you do so intentionally and with a holistic view that balances how much time is spent on assessment tasks with other aspects of teaching and learning in your VCE OES course.

When teaching VCE OES, it is vital that you align your assessment practices to both the requirements of the study design and the mandatory processes around assessment from the (VCAA) Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. The VCAA, publishes a handbook (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2022) which provides advice for teachers and VCE coordinators about implementing assessment within the VCE. In particular, the sections within the handbook about authentication, moderation, equity and the satisfactory completion of outcomes can be invaluable to you as an VCE OES teacher.

This chapter provides advice to you as an OES teacher based on both the handbook and the study design. In addition to reading this, you should also take the time to familiarise yourself with the handbook and the assessment sections of the study design and regularly refer to both when designing and deploying assessment tasks in the VCE OES classroom.

12.2 Types and Functions of Assessment in VCE OES

Assessment in VCE OES can be grouped into three categories. Formative assessment tasks, school-assessed coursework (SAC), and externally set examinations are part of unit 3 and 4 courses. Chapter 13 addresses the VCE OES exam, including strategies for preparing students to complete this assessment. As a teacher of VCE OES, you are required to use a range of assessment processes and practices to determine your students’ completion of the VCE OES course. This differs between units 1 and 2, and units 3 and 4 of the course. Table 12.1 outlines the types of assessment tasks typical in an VCE OES course. Some of these are mandated by the study design (SAC), whilst others are commonplace.

Table 12.1 – Types of VCE OES Assessment

Assessment results from your VCE OES course must be reported to the VCAA in two formats, being: the satisfactory or not-satisfactory completion of each of the outcomes from units 1-4; and the reporting of scores based on school-assessed coursework for all assessed outcomes in units 3 and 4 (shown in Table 12.1 as marked with a *).

For a student to be assessed as satisfactory you as the teacher are required to certify they have “produced work that demonstrates achievement of the outcomes (and) submitted work that is clearly their own” (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2022, p. 89). Furthermore, the handbook clarifies that a student will receive an unsatisfactory grade as follows.

You should note that the above criteria does not mean that the completion of SACs or a certain level of attainment within a SAC (e.g., above 50%) is required to receive a satisfactory result. Although SACs can and often do, contribute to you being able to determine a student as having satisfied the requirement of a particular outcome. In addition, the handbook specifies that students who do not demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of an outcome through a SAC should be given additional opportunities to demonstrate their learning (either through previously completed tasks or additional ones). SACs are also used in units 3 and 4 to determine a student’s level of attainment, which contributes to their VCE OES study score. If a student is given an additional task to demonstrate the satisfactory completion of an outcome, this must not allow them to gain additional marks; rather further tasks can be used to deem a student as having a satisfactory understanding of the outcome.

Formative assessment should be a regular part of your VCE OES course. You should aim to use various types of assessment tasks to allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the course in different mediums. Regardless of your chosen type of task, assessing both the KK/KS as articulated within the study design is important. Additionally, using a variety of mechanisms to provide feedback (teacher feedback, student feedback, peer feedback, etc.) to students can assist in the overall teaching and learning processes within your VCE OES classroom. Possible types of formative assessment include:

• Practice structured (exam) questions
• Online quizzes
• Class discussions
• Worksheets
• Student made infographics, posters, etc.
• Annotated photos
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Participation in activities such as Padlets and other online collaboration tools.

When using tools that enable collaboration and are open-book, these tasks may not meet the requirements for authentication to be used toward an S/N grade. However, they can be useful tools to assist you in measuring the level of student attainment of a KK/KS to help guide your teaching.

Over-assessing is commonplace in education, including in the VCE OES classroom more specifically—this is partly due to the current influence of large-scale standardised testing, which drives many aspects of education (Reid, 2020). You should be aware of the phenomenon of over-assessing in your course and ensure that your formative and summative assessments are balanced in frequency and scale so they do not overtly dominate your classroom. The sample unit planner (see Appendix 3.1) demonstrates a possible assessment map for 3.1.

12.3 Developing Quality SAC Tasks

Developing quality assessment tasks is a skill that you will be continuously working on as a VCE teacher. Developing tasks that meet the requirements set out in the VCAA handbook and the study design is pivotal to ensuring that your course complies with the VCAA requirements and that your SACs adequately prepare your students to complete their externally set examination. When developing SACs, you should consider the following principles of quality assessment tasks.

Alignment to Key Knowledge and Skills

When developing SACs, you must ensure you align your tasks to the KK/KS as displayed in the study design. SACs should use command terms that align with the key skills you are assessing. The VCAA publishes a glossary of command terms, which can be found online. In addition, there are subject-specific meanings of each command term, as shown in Table 12.3 below. This list has been collaborated on by expert teachers over many years.

You can assess students based on the task word listed in the study design or up to that cognitive level. For example, if you were creating a set of structured questions to assess 4.1.2 you could ask students questions that align to any cognitive level up to and including evaluate. As shown in the example below, it is common in VCE OES for multiple-part questions to work through various cognitive levels. Additionally, as you will observe in the example below, the prompts used in the question are concise and easy to follow; they also mimic the style of questions and language used in the end-of-year VCAA set exams.

Example of A Multiple-Part Question

KK: 4.1.2 observable characteristics to assess the health of outdoor environments, including:

• quality of water, air and soil
• species and ecosystem biodiversity

KS: evaluate the health of outdoor environments and create possible solutions to improve environmental health

Question 1 (12 marks)

a. Outline two observable characteristics that can be used to assess the health of outdoor environments (2 marks).

b. Describe how you could observe the health of an outdoor environment using the two characteristics outlined in part a. (4 marks).

c. Evaluate the health of an outdoor environment you have visited or studied this year using the two processes outlined in part b. (6 marks).

Establish a Marking Scheme

When developing tasks, you should develop a marking scheme for each task. To assist with this in units 3 and 4, the VCAA publishes a set of sample performance descriptors. These are an excellent starting point when developing different types of marking schemes. Marking schemes can be broken down question by question, or in some cases, through a rubric. The type of marking scheme used is likely dependent on the type of task being assessed. For example, structured questions, a case study, or other written formats will often use a marking scheme that breaks down the marks for each question. In comparison, SACs such as multimedia tasks, oral presentations, and concept maps may use a rubric to assess the task. In addition, rubrics may be used for certain questions within a marking scheme such as an extended response included in a case study or structured questions task.

All marking schemes, regardless of the type, should:

• break down how the task is to be marked, including the distribution;
• be established and used for all students in the same manner;
• guide you to look for key terminology and other key points; and
• include a sample student answer.

The following is an example of a possible marking scheme that could be used to assess part c. from the above response.

Holistic Marking

Some SAC tasks, or some sections of SAC tasks are better suited to the use of a holistic marking scheme. Such schemes are often formatted as a rubric, or other similar tool. Holistic marking is encouraged for tasks with creative elements, such as podcasts or visual representations of knowledge. In addition, the use of holistic marking can be used to help mark extended responses in different SAC types, including case studies and structured questions. To develop holistic marking schemes for tasks in units 3 and 4, the VCAA-published performance descriptors contained within the support materials can be of use. Although the VCAA does not publish unit 1 and 2 performance descriptors, the development of holistic marking schemes can be modelled from the unit 3 and 4 ones. Table 12.4 below shows an example of a holistic marking scheme for the 4.3 written report task contained in Appendix 3.2

Holistic Marking Rubric – Written Report on Outdoor Experience

KEY to marking scale based on the outcome contributing 40 marks

Modified with permission from: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (n.d.) 

Table 12.4 – Holistic Marking Scheme

The 25/50/25 Rule

When developing a SAC you should ensure that a range of students can access the questions on the task. A rule of thumb that helps with this is the 25/50/25 rule. This refers to the overall breakdown of marks being distributed as follows:

– 25% of marks are low-order questions (identity, outline)

– 50% of marks are medium-order questions (describe, explain)

– 25% of marks are higher-order (analyse, evaluate)

When developing tasks, you should add up your proportion of low/medium/high order tasks to check the overall cognitive distribution of your task. It is important to note that questions can be varied in difficulty through their command words and what is being asked within the question.

12.4 Teacher Requirements

As a VCE OES teacher, there are several requirements to ensure that your assessment practice aligns to the processes set out by the VCAA. This section briefly introduces four key components of administering VCE OES assessments.

Equitable Tasks and Processes

When developing assessment programs for your VCE OES class, you must create fair, equitable, and balanced tasks. This ensures that all students can demonstrate their gained knowledge and skills within a particular part of the curriculum. Practices to ensure equitable assessment include:

– Using the same task for all students

– Having students work with the same set of conditions (time, use of logbooks, etc.)

– Adhering to any reasonable adjustments that some students have been granted by the school or the VCAA (additional time, a separate space, etc.)

Moderation

Moderation of assessment is vital to ensure that students are marked fairly and in line with the VCAA requirements. When you are new to marking for this study, moderation of your SAC tasks must take place. Furthermore, suppose you are teaching at a school with multiple VCE OES classes. In that case, there are additional burdens on you as a teacher to ensure that tasks across the different classes are moderated and marked consistently across your cohort. It is common for a VCE OES teacher to work in isolation in your school. Accordingly, you may need to seek a moderation partner from a neighbouring school or through other networks. One person moderating the tasks should be experienced in teaching and assessing VCE OES. Ideally, the experienced marker will also have experience marking external VCAA examinations. Although many moderation methods exist, a sample of work will typically be marked by multiple teachers in the moderation meeting. Then, a discussion will follow to establish an agreed level of achievement for a particular task. The sample of moderated tasks normally consists of 10-20% of students work, but this will change depending on the size of the cohort.

Commercial Tasks

A range of commercially produced SAC tasks are available each year. These tasks vary in quality depending on the authorship and the organisation producing them. Regardless of whether you have purchased tasks or not, your obligations as a teacher remain unchanged. You are required to ensure that your tasks meet the VCE assessment principles of the VCAA. When working with commercial tasks to develop school assessed coursework (SAC) tasks, they must undergo significant change. Teachers are required to:

1. Ensure the task is compliant with the study design and VCE assessment principles of the VCAA; and
2. Modify the task so that it is unique, and if your students were to obtain a copy of the commercial task (for example, from peers at another school), they would not be advantaged in the SAC.

When working with commercial tasks, we recommend using them as an example and template to create your unique version. Commercial tasks can be used without modification as practice tasks.

VCAA Audit

The VCAA regularly audits the delivery of school-assessed coursework (SAC) used by schools that deliver the VCE. The audit focuses on assessment in units 3 and 4. The audit has multiple stages to ensure that you comply with the requirements within the study design and other assessment processes described here. If you are new to teaching VCE OES or new to a school, the audit can seem overwhelming. However, the audit should be approached as a mechanism of continuous improvement that will help both your individual and the broader collective practice of OES teachers.

It is recommended that you do not complete this task alone your first time completing the audit. Should your school not have other VCE OES teachers, drawing on the expertise of experienced VCE teachers in the learning area (Health and Human Development and Physical Education) or your school’s VCE coordinator can assist you in navigating the audit process.

12.5 Types of School-Assessed Coursework

Many types of SAC tasks can be used within your VCE OES course. These include:

• a case study
• an oral presentation which can include the use of multimedia and podcast
• data analysis
• a written response to an issue
• a visual presentation such as a graphic organiser, concept/mind map, annotated poster or presentation file
• structured questions

The study design outlines the type of task suitable for assessing each outcome. For example, structured questions are only to be used within unit 4. When choosing the types of SAC tasks that you will be using from the list within the study design, you should ensure a balanced approach is used, and a variety of tasks are selected. Regardless of the task type used, you are required to develop tasks with clearly established student instructions and marking criteria or rubrics. Appendix 3.2 contains some examples of SAC tasks to help you develop your own task.

12.6 Assessing Logbooks and the Written Report on Outdoor Experiences

The logbook is a key mechanism to assess students’ learning during outdoor experiences. The use of the logbook varies throughout the study. It is used to:

• Assess the students as satisfactory or not satisfactory for outcomes 1.3 and 2.3;
• As a way to gather visual media to assist in the completion of a SAC (for example, for unit 3 one assessment option is “a visual presentation such as a graphic organiser, concept/mind map, annotated poster that includes both text and still images collected through the outdoor experience logbook” (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2023, p. 25); and
• To capture information relevant to completing the written report for 4.3.

Assessing S/N for 1.3 and 2.3

To assess students’ satisfactory understanding of area of study three in both units 1 and 2, you are required to have students complete several logbook entries through which they demonstrate their understanding of the KK and KS from the respective outcome (1.3 and 2.3) being assessed. It is also likely that logbook entries for units 1 and 2 will also cover KK/KS from the other outcomes—these entries, focus on 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, and 2.2, can be used as both formative assessment tasks, and to help students develop their skills in completing logbook entries in preparation for the unit 3 and 4 logbook entries (in particular for the written report task). The below example shows how the logbook can be used to assess students’ knowledge of the hazards and risks associated with surfing.

Case Study 12.1 – Pre-Activity Check Surfing

Activity: ­ Surfing – Pt Leo

Date:10/3/2024

Time of check: 0945

RISK ASSESSMENT

Risks relating to the following have been considered:

Adapted from: Department of Education Pre-activity check (2023) CC BY 4.0

Collecting Data for the Written Report and Other SAC Tasks

The logbook is used to collect data in preparation for the written report used as the substantive assessment for 4.3, and similarly for other tasks at the teachers’ discretion. Entries in the logbook can contain both primary and secondary data. Primary data is information that your students collect during outdoor experiences. This might include observations, photos, and numerical data related to the KK/KS being studied. Secondary data comes from research and other sources; this can be added during outdoor experiences through documents and other sources studied during the experience or afterwards through student-conducted research (see 10.4). You must authenticate logbooks as the teacher (see 11.4). Accordingly, secondary data should be gathered in class and within a fixed time period and with other parameters to ensure that the logbook is an equitable, fair and balanced part of the assessment process.

Students are required to take their logbook into the written report SAC task for 4.3. This could be certain pages or the entire book, depending on how detailed their entries are and the moderation processes used. Any material taken into a SAC must be authenticated by you to ensure they are original work. You may also permit students to take their logbook, or excerpts from it, into other tasks. Using a logbook in a task is best reserved for tasks that require it, for example, when students need to refer to images and other data from their logbook. The logbook should be used sparingly as students need to practice writing SAC tasks without material with them to prepare for the external examination.

Written Report on Outdoor Experiences for 4.3

The written report on outdoor experiences is used to assess outcome 4.3. You will notice that there is no AoS 3 reported in unit 3. As discussed in section 9.4.3, 4.3 is a mechanism for assessing students’ outdoor experiences across units 3 and 4. As part of this, you must select four KK points from units 3 and 4 to underpin a written report based on the students’ outdoor experience. The four KK points selected are up to you as the teacher. They should relate explicitly to the two outdoor environments that your students have visited. Selecting your four KK points from the other outcomes surrounding a broad theme is advisable. These themes would likely come from the cross-study specifications of Indigenous peoples’ relationships with outdoor environments, environmental citizenship, or sustainability. A possible selection of KK aligned to two outdoor environments is shown below. You will note that the selected KK points cover both units, but a focus on 4.1 is used. This allows the written report SAC to be delivered in early term 3 of the program.

Students would make a series of entries into their logbooks during outdoor experiences in both of your chosen outdoor environments. These entries, once authenticated, would then be taken into the written report SAC task and used by the student to help develop their written report. Due to the nature of this task, a holistic marking approach is required, a rubric developed based on the VCAA performance descriptors should be used. Appendix 3.2: Sample SAC Tasks, contains a sample written report task.

References

Collins, C. (2011). The tail wagging the dog? Assessment and reporting. In L. Yates, C. Collins, & K. O’Connor (Eds.), Australia’s curriculum dilemmas: State cultures and the big issues (pp. 185-201). Melbourne University Publishing.

Department of Education. (2023). Pre-Activity Check. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/PAL/excursions-pre-activity-check.docx

Reid, A. (2020). Changing Australian education: How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about It. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003115144

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (n.d.) VCE OES Unit 4 Outcome 3 Performance Descriptor. https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/outdoor-and-environmentalstudies/Pages/Assessment.aspx#:~:text=4%2C%20Outcome%202-,Unit%204%2C%20Outcome%203,-VCAA 

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2022). VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2023 VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2023. https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/administration/vce-vcal-handbook/Pages/index.aspx

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2023). Outdoor and Environmental Studies – Study Design. https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/outdoor/2024OutdoorEnviroSD.docx