SUBJECT COORDINATOR MANUAL SEMESTER 1, 2019 - Melbourne School of ...
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SUBJECT COORDINATOR MANUAL
SEMESTER 1, 2019
Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................4
Contact Information ..................................................................................................................................5
Emergency Support....................................................................................................................................6
Mental Health Training for Staff ...............................................................................................................6
Stop 1 ..........................................................................................................................................................6
Setting up LMS ...........................................................................................................................................7
Subject Information Document ................................................................................................................7
Handbook Entry..........................................................................................................................................8
Stats and Research Methods Modules .....................................................................................................8
Readings Online..........................................................................................................................................8
Potentially Confronting Material ..............................................................................................................8
Hurdle Requirements.................................................................................................................................9
Privacy Policy ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Ad Hoc Arrangements............................................................................................................................. 10
Leave of Absence .................................................................................................................................... 10
Email ......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Lecturer Assessment and SES................................................................................................................. 11
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners ............................................................................................ 12
Maintaining Confidentiality.................................................................................................................... 12
Running Your Subject .................................................................................................................................. 13
Late Enrolments ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Online Consultation Sessions ................................................................................................................. 13
Tutors ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
In-Class Experiments ............................................................................................................................... 14
PeerWise .................................................................................................................................................. 14
Submission of Work ................................................................................................................................ 15
Assessment Criteria ................................................................................................................................ 15
Assessment Information......................................................................................................................... 16
Feedback on Assessment Tasks ............................................................................................................. 16
Penalty for Late Work ............................................................................................................................. 17
Extensions ................................................................................................................................................ 17
Due Diligence on Assignment Submission ............................................................................................ 17
Marking Consistency Across Markers.................................................................................................... 18
2
Special Consideration (Unexpected Circumstances) ............................................................................ 18
Special Consideration (Ongoing Support) ............................................................................................. 21
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism ........................................................................................................ 21
Resubmitting Assignments ..................................................................................................................... 24
Releasing Assignment Marks ................................................................................................................. 25
Remarking Procedures............................................................................................................................ 25
Student Complaints ................................................................................................................................ 27
Exam Papers ............................................................................................................................................ 27
Examination Times and Venues ............................................................................................................. 28
Exam Attendance .................................................................................................................................... 28
Wrapping Up Your Subject ......................................................................................................................... 29
Subject Experience Survey ..................................................................................................................... 29
Board of Examiners’ Meeting................................................................................................................. 29
After the Board of Examiners’ Meeting ................................................................................................ 30
Requests To Review Exams .................................................................................................................... 30
Final Subject Assessment ....................................................................................................................... 32
Appendix .................................................................................................................................................. 33
Basic Checklist ......................................................................................................................................... 33
Example Email to Students Who Have Not Submitted an Assignment .............................................. 35
Setting up PeerWise for your Subject ................................................................................................... 35
Example Description of Levels of Performance for Inclusion with Marking Criteria ......................... 36
Individual Lecturer Assessment ............................................................................................................. 37
How to Add a Stats or Methods Module to your LMS website ........................................................... 39
How to Set-Up an Online Consultation Session Via Youtube .............................................................. 42
3
Introduction
Thank you for agreeing to be a Subject Coordinator! We understand that it can be a lot of work and
we greatly appreciate the effort you put into ensuring your students receive a first-class education. In
doing this, we ask you to follow “The Melbourne Way”, which is central to all learning experiences at
the University of Melbourne. A detailed description can be found here:
https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/resources/resources/teaching-and-learning/teaching-in-
practice/the-melbourne-way
Other teaching resources can be found here:
http://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/resources
While we ask that these principles guide your day-to-day interactions with students and determine
how you coordinate your subject, there is a large amount of practical information that you will also
need to master if you are to be an effective coordinator. This reference manual represents an attempt
to collect together in one place as much of this information as possible. It is a work in progress, so
please alert the Director of Teaching and Learning to any omissions that you find. The manual is
roughly organised in the order in which you will need this information. While it is designed primarily
for new members of academic staff, given the large number of changes to procedures that have
occurred in the last few years, we hope that this manual will also help ensure consistency in
coordination across all subjects. We assume that staff members are also familiar with the student
manuals relevant to their course (e.g. Years 1-3 student manual, the 4 th year student manual and the
Graduate Diploma student manual), so we will not repeat any information contained in those manuals.
Each section of the Subject Coordinator manual is designed to be read on its own and is hyperlinked to
the contents page.
While a number of people will work with you in the delivery of the subject, ultimately, you, as the
subject coordinator, are responsible for all aspects of it. In particular, you need to ensure that the
lectures follow a coherent and logical plan, the tutorials and assessments are appropriately aligned
with the lectures, and that the assessments are sufficiently varied to ensure that the stated learning
objectives of the subject, as detailed in the University handbook, are achieved. You need to ensure
that if there is a final exam, it adequately and appropriately assesses the subject content and that it is
free from errors, including any that may be introduced in the printing process. For the Board of
Examiner’s meeting you need to prepare and present a worksheet detailing the marks for each
student for your subject, including any penalties or special considerations that occurred. Finally, you
need to report the SES results and distribution of grades to your students, after this information is
released.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact the Director of Teaching and
Learning. We look forward to supporting you any way we can.
4
Contact Information
Director of Learning and Teaching (DOTL) 1st Year/Grad Dip Convenor
A/Prof. Piers Howe Dr Simon Cropper
pdhowe@unimelb.edu.au Email: scropper@unimelb.edu.au
Deputy Director of Teaching and Learning 4th Year Convenor
(Deputy DOTL) Dr Luke Smillie
A/Prof Amy Perfors Email: lsmillie@unimelb.edu.au
amy.perfors@unimelb.edu.au
Psychology International Student Liaison
Undergraduate Programs Convenor Dr Jason Forte
Dr. Judi Humberstone Email: jdf@unimelb.edu.au
judih@unimelb.edu.au
Academic Skills Unit
Academic Programs Manager https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills
Andrew Howes
andrew.howes@unimelb.edu.au Counselling Service
Redmond Barry Building, Level 12 Office https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel
5
Emergency Support
University Security on 8344 6666 is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for on-the-spot help. If your
situation is immediately life-threatening or urgent, always call Victoria Police on 000 first.
If you need an emergency psychiatric intervention you may call the Psychiatric Triage number 1 300
874 234 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
If you are meeting with a student and you become worried about their mental health, please ask them
if they are receiving professional help. If they are not, please ask them if you may call the University
Counselling and Psychological Services and set-up an appointment for them. If you have urgent
concerns, please tell the receptionist that you have urgent concerns and need to speak to senior
counsellor right away.
(03) 8344 6927
For further details, please see here
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/about/contact
There are also a large number of external support services, many operating 24/7, including suicide and
crisis support. Their contact details can be found here
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/emergencies
If a student presents to you in distress, do not attempt to counsel them. Instead, please ensure that
the student obtains professional help, using the contact details listed in the above link.
Mental Health Training for Staff
It is recommended that all teaching staff who do not have a clinical background complete the
University’s online mental health training module. This takes approximately 40 minutes. This module
explains how staff should interact with students who are in distress or otherwise display possible
mental health issues. For further details please go here:
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/mental_health/mh_training
Stop 1
Stop 1 is designed to be the one stop shop for student support services. Generally, if a student
requires (non-emergency) assistance, they should be referred to Stop 1. The exception is that
Graduate Diploma students should be referred to the 12 th Floor for any matter regarding course
administration as the Graduate Diploma is administered by the School of Psychological Sciences.
There are also a wide range of other support services that may also help the student:
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/finder/home
6Setting up LMS
Subject Coordinators need to:
1. Ensure that the contact details of each lecturer in your subject are displayed on the subject
website in LMS.
2. Ensure that a subject information document is posted (see below).
3. Ensure that there are weblinks to both the years 1-3 student manual and the grad dip student
manual. These manuals are available here
https://psychologicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/study/current-students
Please use weblinks as opposed to copying the manuals as they may be updated during the
semester.
4. Ensure that the extension tab on the LMS page is visible and works.
5. Partition the discussion board into appropriate folders and arrange for these folders to be
monitored appropriately.
6. Ensure that the required readings are made available.
7. Set up (or oversee the setting up of) Turnitin links for each assessment task. If submissions are
to be made on the day of the lab class, there should be a Turnitin link for each day of the
submission week, closing at 8.00 am on that day. Please note that the ‘Post Date’ in Turnitin
refers to the date and time after which students can view the feedback comments on their
work.
8. Set up links for each assessment task: one for late submissions and one for assignments that
have been granted an extension. These will not have a closing date/time.
9. Make sure that the lecture capture link is active in their LMS. If not, you will need to visit this
website: https://le.unimelb.edu.au/lms-and-lecture-capture/.
10. Set up grade centre (your principal tutor might do this for you, if you have one)
Subject Information Document
Subject Coordinators are expected to compile a subject information document and make it available
on the subject website (see point 2 in Setting up LMS, above). At a minimum this document should
include the following which needs to be consistent with the subject entry in the Handbook
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/ :
1. A brief overview of the subject;
2. A list of the topics that will be covered in each week and the required readings for that week;
3. A list of the academic staff that will be teaching into the subject, their responsibilities, and
contact information;
4. A list of the lecture times;
5. A description of the assessments and their weightings.
7Staff are requested NOT to duplicate any material covered in the student manual. In particular, they
are requested not to discuss late penalties, word count penalties, extensions, or special consideration.
Instead, students should be referred to the relevant student manual.
Handbook Entry
It is a University requirement that subjects are taught in the way described in the handbook entry. It is
particularly important that the lecture times and details of the assessments (e.g. number of
assessments, type of assessment, word count and relative weightings) comply exactly with what is
written in the handbook. If there is a dispute, the handbook will be taken as definitive, regardless of
what the students have been told or what is written in the student manuals. If you wish to make a
change to the Handbook entry, you will need to contact the Academic Programs Manager. Please
note that the University imposes deadlines as to when certain changes can be made, so please
contact the Academic Programs Manager as early as possible. If you have not already done so, please
check the handbook entry for your subject now:
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/
Stats and Research Methods Modules
There is a community website that contains statistics and research methods modules that you may
choose to add to your subject LMS website. To utilise these, please see the instructions at the end of
this document.
Readings Online
It is common practice in the department to provide students with all readings (except for textbooks)
online via the LMS subject webpage. It is a University Requirement that all such reading must be
provided via “Readings Online”. Some lecturers have informally reported that this system prevented
them from organising the readings in the manner that they needed to, so opted to instead provide
the readings manually. For instructions on how to utilize Readings Online, please see:
https://library.unimelb.edu.au/readings-online
Potentially Confronting Material
Academic staff are asked to be considerate and sensitive when presenting material that may
potentially provoke phobic or post-traumatic reactions in some students, recognising that it may be
difficult to predict when such reactions will occur.
8Please take particular care to avoid graphic and/or gratuitous images of sexual assault, blood, self-
harm, suicide, combat/war, or violence. Please include only the images that are essential for the
educational point that you wish to make. Any potentially confronting material, such as images or
content in particular lectures, ideally should be identified in both the LMS subject description and
verbally at the start of the first lecture of the subject, but it is recognised that this will not always be
possible. Please take particular care to avoid including potentially confronting material in assignments
and exams, except when required by the nature of the subject matter (e.g., some clinical psychology
subjects).
If gratuitous content of the types listed above is not presented, and graphic images or discussion of
such content is appropriately flagged in advance, students will not be considered by the School to
have grounds for being excused from assigned academic tasks or assessments or for seeking
alternative tasks and assessments. If students believe that there are exceptional reasons why they
require alternative tasks or assessments, they will need to apply for special consideration rather than
seeking such alternatives directly from the relevant teaching staff. Similarly, although staff should
make efforts to avoid gratuitously confronting material, they are not expected to provide prior
warning of the many kinds of content outside those listed above that may offend or upset some
students. Neither are staff expected to avoid potentially contentious topics in class if these are
educationally justified, nor provide alternative academic tasks or assessments to students who object
to such other forms of confronting content.
Should a student experience a phobic or traumatic reaction to subject content please email a short
description of the incident to the DOTL and refer the student to the Counselling and Psychological
Services: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/emergencies
For the University Guidelines please see:
https://provost.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/575553/Student_Exposure_to_Explicit_
or_Confronting_Material_Guidelines.pdf
Hurdle Requirements
Please check the hurdle requirements listed in the handbook for your subject. Most subjects in the
accredited psychology major sequence have a hurdle requirement of 80% attendance at laboratory
classes. Completion of all assessment tasks is also a requirement to pass most level 1-4 psychology
subjects and this requirement cannot be waived. If necessary, alternative assignments may need to be
set. If a student has obtained special consideration for laboratory attendance, please do not waive the
attendance requirement. Instead, the student will automatically be given the opportunity to do a
make-up assessment in lieu of the requirement. Students will need to complete these assessments in
a timely manner – we are not allowed to alter marks more than 3 months after the first publication of
the results, even if the marks are being increased.
9Privacy Policy
Student’s personal information should be safe guarded. A summary of the University’s privacy policy
can be found here:
http://www.unimelb.edu.au/governance/compliance/privacy/privacy-resources#summary-of-
universitys-privacy-responsibilities
In brief, you may disclose a student’s personal information when necessary, for the purpose for which
the personal information was explicitly collected for and to those University staff members whose job
it is to deal with that information, without re-seeking the student’s permission to do so. For example,
you are allowed to forward a student’s Academic Adjustment plan to the DOTL if you need advice on
it, without first seeking permission from the student. The students were explicitly told that the
information that they supplied would be made available to authorised staff in their academic division
(faculty or graduate school) for the purposes of deciding reasonable adjustments.
If a student wishes to obtain adjustments but does not wish to reveal his/her AAP to you (or has
redacted parts of it), please do not make any adjustments and instruct the student to return to Stop 1
to have their AAP appropriately edited so it can be shared with the appropriate members of staff.
Ad Hoc Arrangements
The University is very keen that we do not make any ad hoc arrangements with students. If a student
needs an adjustment (e.g. an extension), they should apply through the official channels so they can
be monitored, or they may not receive the additional help to which they are entitled. Ad hoc
arrangements often disadvantage the student in the long term and may mean that we fail to support
the student to the extent to which the student is reasonably entitled.
Leave of Absence
Subject Coordinators sometimes need to respond to certain emails (e.g. special consideration
requests) within a day. Thus, if you need to take a period of annual leave that is more than one day,
please find another member of academic staff who is willing to fill in for you.
When absent, please set up an automated email to inform people a) that you are on leave and (if
appropriate) b) which member of academic staff will be covering for you. You should consider leaving
emergency contact details with this member of staff. If you are taking conference leave you are still
required to perform your duties as the Subject Coordinator.
10In this automated email please do NOT direct students to contact your head tutor or any member of
professional staff if they have questions. Please do not ask your head tutor or members of
professional staff to cover for you in your absence.
Please inform your supervisor and your head tutor of the dates for which you will be absent and
which academic staff member will be covering for you.
Email
It is School policy for staff not to respond to or initiate any work-related email outside official business
hours (9am-5pm).
Lecturer Assessment and SES
The School is very keen that lecturers are appropriately and fairly assessed. Starting in 2018, each
lecturer who lectures for three or more weeks in a given subject needs to be individually assessed.
(Lecturers who teach less than three weeks can be assessed if they choose). This is to avoid having to
rely solely on SES scores when assessing lecturers as the SES scores will often reflect the contributions
of multiple lecturers.
It is the responsibility of the subject coordinator to arrange for each lecturer to be individually
assessed. After the lecturer has finished teaching his/her section of the subject, the subject
coordinator should email all students in the subject and invite them to participate in a survey to
assess their level of satisfaction. The survey should be conducted in LMS to ensure that students
cannot take the survey multiple times, while still allowing them to remain anonymous. The survey
should consist of a single question: “Overall, [insert lecturer’s name]’s section of this subject has been
well-taught” followed by the standard Likert scale (1 - Strongly Disagree; 2 - Disagree; 3 - Neither; 4 -
Agree; 5 - Strongly Agree). This question has been designed to closely mimic question four of the SES.
It is School policy that time should be set aside in a tutorial to complete this survey. If this does not
occur, the response rate is likely to be too low. As the survey will consist of just a single question, it
can be completed in less than a minute. Lecturers are not allowed to be present in the room while the
survey is being completed. An example invitation email and instructions for how to create the survey
in LMS can found in the appendix.
At the start of the final tutorial, time should also be set aside for students to complete the SES. While
this is being done no teaching staff (including tutors) can be in the room. It is very important that the
SES is completed at the start of the tutorial and not at the end as otherwise students have a tendency
to leave early without completing the SES.
11Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners
At the start of the first lecture of each subject, we ask that the lecturer acknowledges the traditional
custodians and owners of the land. How the lecturer does this, is up to them, providing it is clear that
the acknowledgement is sincere. Three example acknowledgments are given below.
Example 1:
“We acknowledge the Elders, families and descendants of the Wurundjeri people who have been and
are the custodians of these lands. We acknowledge that the land in which we meet was the place of
age old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal and that the local Aboriginal peoples have
had and continue to have a unique role in the life of these lands”
Example 2:
“We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which Melbourne University is located, the
land of the Wurundjeri and pay respect to their Elders and families.”
Example 3:
“We acknowledge that we are standing on the land of the Wurundjeri people who have been
custodians of this area for thousands of years.”
For further information, please see
http://murrupbarak.unimelb.edu.au/engage/cultural-awareness,-protocols-and-advice
This acknowledgement should not be repeated at the start of each lecture, only at the start of the
first one. Similarly, it should not be repeated in the tutorials.
Maintaining Confidentiality
As a subject coordinator you will have access to a wide variety of confidential information from what
is discussed at various meetings (e.g. Board of Examiners’ Meeting and the School Committee
Meeting) to the details of School Policies and Procedures contained in this manual. Please be mindful
of confidentially when communicating with students. It is not appropriate to report to students what
occurs at these meeting nor is it appropriate to show them the Subject Coordinator manual. Students
who wish further clarification of School policies should, in the first instance, consult the relevant
student manual. Should they have further queries, please ask them to contact the Director of
Teaching and Learning.
12Running Your Subject
Late Enrolments
Students occasionally approach coordinators after the close of the self-enrolment period (which
concludes at the end of Week 2), requesting permission for a late enrolment. Please do not grant
permission for any late enrolments. The reason for this is that students have all year to decide to join a
subject and they cannot satisfy our attendance hurdle requirements if they enrol late. In many
subjects, critical information for assignments would have already been provided in lectures and lab
classes.
Online Consultation Sessions
It is suggested that subject coordinators, lecturers and the head/senior tutor hold regular online,
consultation sessions via youtube. There is some circumstantial evidence that this increases SES
scores, especially for question 2 “Overall, this subject has been well co-ordinated”. The advantage of
holding such sessions online is that students can access them more easily and they can be recorded
for the students who were unable to attend them. An explanation as to how to do this via youtube is
explained in the appendix. Using youtube, students can see you and write messages to which you can
respond. You cannot see the students (which seems to encourage them to attend the sessions).
Tutors
Subject Coordinators should provide tutors with the following:
1. An overview of the general subject content including lectures, reading materials, and
assessment requirements;
2. Written materials or detailed verbal guidance outlining the relevant background, educational
objectives, and content of tutorials in a timely manner prior to the tutorial;
3. Clear assessment guidelines for marking assignments, lab reports, or examinations to allow an
adequate level of feedback to be provided to each student (see below);
4. Flexible availability and responsiveness to Tutor queries and concerns as they arise.
In addition, it is the responsibility of the Subject Coordinator to:
1. Provide tutors with an explicit set of marking criteria and train tutors on these criteria so that
they all mark consistently. This can be done by having them all mark three sample pieces and
then providing “model” markings of these three pieces. Alternatively, tutors can blind cross-
mark a number of assignments to check their calibration.
2. Ensure that all tutors are aware of the policies on late submission, word count, and the
process for checking and reporting plagiarism to the Subject Coordinator.
133. Ensure that all tutors provide feedback on assignments in the same manner. It is
recommended that all tutors use the same subheadings for the general comments section and
these subheadings match those in the marking criteria.
4. Ensure tutors understand that the tone of their comments needs to match the letter grade
they award (see below).
5. Ensure that all assessments that receive a fail grade (i.e. less than 50%) are double marked
6. Prior to the release of the grades, check that the average mark and the range is approximately
the same across all tutors. If the marks for particular tutors seem to be discrepant, the tutor(s)
should be contacted to determine whether there is a plausible reason for this. Otherwise, the
marks for that tutor will need to be adjusted and the affected grades altered in Turnitin.
7. Reminding tutors to email any student in their tutorial who has not submitted their
assignment within two days of the submission date. The suggested text of the email is in the
Appendix.
8. Remind tutors that they need to monitor tutorial attendance and email any student who
misses a tutorial to remind the student of the attendance requirements.
If a student misses more than 20% of their tutorials they will need to do a make-up assessment before
being certified as meeting the attendance requirements for the subject. The Subject Coordinator does
not need to organise this but, when contacted by the Principal tutor, will need to supply an alternative
assignment. The Principal tutor will administer this assignment to the appropriate students and
arrange for the marking to occur etc. No further involvement from the Subject Coordinator will be
necessary.
In-Class Experiments
While in-class experiments are encouraged, please be particularly sensitive in how they are
administered, especially if they are a mandatory part of the subject. In particular, if you ask students
to self-identify their gender, please give them the opportunity to select “other”, in addition to “male’
and “female”. Similar considerations should be given to other categorical questions of a personal
nature such as race or age.
PeerWise
It is recommended that subjects with an enrolment of more than 200 students that have a multiple
choice component to the final exam utilise a web-based tool known as PeerWise. PeerWise is a free
and independent website that allows students to create, share, and answer multiple choice questions
authored by other students. In this way, it allows students to revise subject-specific content in a
collaborative and supportive environment. PeerWise has been shown to be an effective revision aid
for our specific courses and is actively promoted by the University. The initial webpage can be set-up
14by the Subject Coordinator in less than 2 minutes and from that point on the website is almost entirely
managed by the students themselves. However, the Subject Coordinator will need to actively promote
it for it to be successful.
Please see the Appendix for details on how to set-up a PeerWise website for your course. For a brief
overview of PeerWise please see https://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1min_Intro.php
Submission of Work
All undergraduate assignments are to be submitted via LMS (Turnitin) before 8:00am on the due date.
There is no grace period. Students have been told this and have been advised to submit by 7:00am at
the latest to allow for any submission difficulties. They have been explicitly told that technology failure
and slow internet connections are not sufficient excuses for late submission. If a student contacts you
with a valid reason for submitting late please advise them to apply either for an extension or special
consideration.
Assessment Criteria
According to university policy (MPF1326, section 4.47), for each assessment you need to ensure that
a) clear assessment criteria are published with the details of each assessment task in the subject
outline; and
(b) assessment standards are explicit, and provide an explanation or example of the qualities of
work required to achieve particular grades. Explanations of assessment criteria are:
i. specific to each task;
ii. clearly worded in plain English;
iii. sufficiently detailed so as to provide guidance to students undertaking assessment tasks, but
not so detailed as to make the task meaningless (i.e., by providing ‘the answer’);
iv. justifiable (i.e., linked to the learning objectives of the subject);
v. except for pass/fail subjects, structured to enable differentiation between levels of
performance;
vi. appropriate to assessment weightings (i.e., of sufficient detail given the relative importance
of the task); and
vii. supported by a verbal or written statement about what constitutes the various levels of
performance (e.g., what constitutes ‘outstanding’ versus ‘adequate’ level work and examples
of each where practical) [Please see the Appendix for an example of this statement that
could be adapted to your course]
MSPS recommends that all assessment criteria include a mark for Overall Communication &
Originality. This will allow some flexibility in determining the overall mark and will allow minor acts of
plagiarism to be punished without having to resort to formal proceedings.
For any major acts of plagiarism, please follow the procedure outlined in the section Academic
Integrity and Plagiarism.
15Assessment Information
Where possible, please take care to place all the documents relating to an assessment (e.g. marking
scheme, data files, supplementary information, supporting documents, FAQs etc.) in a single folder.
Feedback on Assessment Tasks
MSPS recommends that the assessment criteria use subheadings and that these same subheadings
are used in the feedback provided to students in the general comments section of Turnitin. If this is
done, then students are more likely to understand how the comments reflect their ma rk and are less
likely to assume that their work has not been marked according to the assessment criteria. The
assessment criteria for the Honours thesis are an example of a set of assessment criteria that fulfil all
these requirements.
Where possible, feedback to students should also explicitly state how they can improve their
performance in future work.
For year 4, the H1 band should be subdivided into H1 high (90+), H1 medium (90-85) and H1 low (84-
80). For years 1-3, the H1 band should not be subdivided.
The tone of the comments to students needs to reflect their grade. The most common reason for
requesting a remark is that the tone of the comments does not match the letter grade. Examples of
the appropriate tone are listed below:
Grade Example Opening Comment
H1 Excellent! Very good work!
H2A Mostly good.
H2B While some sections were good, in other areas it was noticeably weaker. Substantial
improvement is needed.
H3 This assignment did not adequately address many of the marking criteria.
P This assignment failed to adequately address most of the marking criteria. There were
numerous significant/substantial weakness throughout the assignment.
N This assignment failed to adequately address almost all of the marking criteria. It was
16substantially flawed.
Penalty for Late Work
For assignments submitted after the due date without an approved extension, the awarded mark will
be reduced by 10% of the total marks available for each working day the work is late. Assignments
submitted more than 5 working days after the due date without an approved extension should receive
no marks.
However, these assignments should still be marked in case the student obtains a waiver of the late
penalty by applying for special consideration. In the comments section of Turnitin such students should
be told “Original grade X. As this assignment is more than 5 days late, you will receive no marks for this
assignment. Final grade: N. If you have a legitimate reason why your assignment was late, you should
apply for special consideration.”
Extensions
Students can apply directly to the School for an extension of up to 10 working days but must do so
within 3 working days from the due date. If a student requires a longer extension than 10 days or does
not apply to the School within 3 days, they should be instructed to apply for special consideration (see
below). Students apply for extensions by clicking on the extensions link on each subject’s LMS
webpage. (The extension link will be set-up by Undergraduate Programs Convenor.) Extensions are
approved by professional staff according to a strict set of criteria. If students are experiencing
difficulties of an ongoing or recurring episodic nature, please advise them to seek support and advice
from the Student Equity and Disability Unit so that they can obtain an Academic Adjustment Plan:
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability.
If a student is awarded an extension, the relevant tutor will be notified automatically to remove the
late penalty. Students have been told that if they are awarded an extension, this may delay the release
of their marks and when they receive feedback.
Due Diligence on Assignment Submission
At the start of their course, Subject Coordinators should remind students that they are required to take
screen shots of the receipts produced by Turnitin so that they can prove when they have submitted
their assignments.
17Please request tutors contact any student who has not submitted an assignment within 2 working
days of the submission date, informing them that their assignment has not been received and
advising them to apply for an extension or special consideration if they have a valid reason for
submitting late. Example email included in appendix.
Marking Consistency Across Markers
In subjects where an assignment is marked by more than one marker (e.g., each tutor marks the
submissions from his/her tutorial group), procedures to ensure marking consistency need to be
employed. Such procedures could include a marking consistency meeting and/or cross-marking.
Additionally, the subject coordinator is required to compare the mean marks across the different
markers to ensure consistency. If the mean mark for a particular marker differs substantially from the
mean marks of the other makers, in the absence of a compelling reason for why this should be the
case, the subject coordinator should either add or subtract marks from all students marked by that
maker to remove the discrepancy. It is important that a student should not be placed at either an
advantage or disadvantage by virtue of being marked by a particular marker.
Special Consideration (Unexpected Circumstances)
Students who have experienced a hardship that is expected to last less than six weeks that has
significantly impacted their performance during the academic semester and requires something more
than the 10 day extension they can obtain from the School (or have waited too long to request an
extension via the School) may apply for special consideration. The eligibility of such requests is
assessed by the Student Equity team at Stop 1.
To reduce the workload of subject coordinators, we have delegated authority to Stop 1 to action
minor special consideration requests, without contacting us. Specifically, if they have already deemed
a request to be eligible, they may, without contacting us:
1. Award special exam arrangements or move the exam to the supplementary exam period
2. Award a late withdrawal, if explicitly requested by the student
3. Award up to a 15 working day extension to the due date of an assignment, measured from
when the assignment was originally due (i.e. this includes any extension already awarded by
the School).
For other requests, e.g. extension requests of more than 15 days in total, once Stop 1 has determined
the student’s documentation supports their request, including the extension dates the student may
have requested, the School needs to consider the request. The professional staff will email the request
to the subject coordinator and the Academic Programs Manager. The role of the subject coordinator is
to consider the request and recommend an outcome. The role of the Academic Programs Manager is,
18under delegation by the Director of Teaching and Learning, to ensure consistency and to refer non-
standard cases to the DOTL. The details that will be provided in the email will include (where possible):
• The assessment item
• Whether the student has applied and received a previous extension
• What the request is e.g. an extension of xx days
The details that will not be provided (as this has already been assessed by Stop 1) include:
• Any details as to why the student is applying for special consideration
• The supporting documentation
The email will generally ask the subject coordinator to respond with one of the three options below.
Option 1. I can grant the request.
Where feasible, the subject coordinator should approve the request after considering the
following:
• Is it possible for me to approve this request?
• If I approve this request, is this equitable in regard to when feedback is released to other
students?
• If ‘no’ to the above, is it possible for me to offer an alternative assessment as per Option 2
below?
Where you are able to approve an extension, the final due date cannot be later than the last day
of the special exam period. If you believe there are exceptional grounds for the final due to date to
after the commencement of the next semester, the Academic Programs Manager will refer this to
the DOTL. Also, while the original due dates for assignments should not be scheduled during swot-
vac, where a student has applied for special consideration, the new due date for that student may
be in swot-vac.
In some cases, it will be appropriate for a subject coordinator to grant an extension beyond the
point where feedback will have been provided to other students. When making this determination
the subject coordinator will need to decide to what extent the feedback given to other students
will advantage the student receiving the extension.
If prior to submission of the assignment, all students were provided with a marking scheme, and
the feedback to students will consist solely of explanations of where they personally did or did not
satisfy this marking scheme, then the subject coordinator may decide that feedback given to one
student will not significantly benefit another student. In such a situation, the subject coordinator
may decide to grant an extension beyond the date at which feedback will be given to other
students.
Conversely, if feedback consists of providing students with model answers or the class is provided
with information as to how they, in general, could have improved their assignments, then it is likely
that this feedback would benefit a student who has not yet submitted their assignment. In such a
19situation, a subject coordinator would probably decide that it would be more appropriate to set an
alternative assignment.
Option 2. I cannot grant the request because……………………... I can offer an alternative assignment
to be submitted by XX/XX/20XX. I have: (please choose one)
• already advised the student of the alternative assignment details
• The student needs to email me to be advised of the details
Unless there are exceptional grounds, the due date of the alternative assignment cannot be later
than the last day of the special exam period. If this cannot occur, a late withdrawal should be
offered.
Option 3. I cannot grant the request or offer an alternative assignment for the reason(s)
of………………………………... The student should be offered a late withdrawal from the subject.
Late withdrawals should only be offered as a last resort when an alternative assignment cannot be
offered. Late withdrawals are typically offered only in three circumstances:
1) When the student explicitly requests a late withdrawal.
2) When the student is unable to complete an alternative assignment by the end of the last day of
the special exam period.
3) When a student has already received special consideration twice on a particular assessment
task. In such circumstances, the only option is to grant a late withdrawal, as special consideration
cannot be given more than twice for any one assessment task (Assessment and Results Policy,
4.131).
Only Stop1 is allowed to assess whether a student is eligible for special consideration. If a student
approaches you directly to ask for special consideration please direct them to apply via Stop 1 in the
official manner. Coming to an ad hoc agreement with the student outside the official process is not
allowed under any circumstances. If a student has difficulty applying for special consideration (e.g.
they cannot access the student portal), in the first instance they should be told to contact Stop 1. If
they cannot do this, they should be referred to the Director of Teaching and Learning to discuss the
matter.
If an extension means that a student will submit an assignment after other students have received
feedback, the subject coordinator wish may require the student to submit a statutory declaration
stating that they have not benefitted from any feedback other students have received regarding the
assignment. The student would need to be told to email the statutory declaration to the subject
20coordinator directly and the subject coordinator would be responsible for verifying that this has
occurred. Subject coordinators are not required to insist on statutory declarations.
When you receive the official notification of a special consideration outcome, please make sure you
forward the email to the head tutor (or the relevant tutor if you do not have a head tutor) to ensure
the special consideration is acted on, or else the tutor will have no way of knowing which late penalties
to waive etc. as the official outcome emails are not sent to tutors.
Also, sometimes STOP1 will designate a submission time other than 8am. If this occurs, this will
become the official submission time. Please draw your tutor’s attention to this fact.
Students have been told that if they are awarded an extension, this may delay the release of their
marks and when they receive feedback.
If subject coordinators desire, they can negotiate with the Academic Programs manager regarding
delegating authority for special consideration decisions to the 12 th floor. For instance, subject
coordinators could choose to give the Academic Programs Manager a list of their assignments and for
each assignment state the date up to which they are willing to grant extensions. After that date, the
12th floor would award alternative assignments.
Special Consideration (Ongoing Support)
Students experiencing hardship that is expected to last six weeks or more should register for ongoing
support by obtaining an Academic Adjustment Plan (AAP). The AAP outlines the range of potential
adjustments that may be made to in-semester assessment tasks, exams, and attendance requirements
(including priority access to requested class times). Please accommodate these adjustments if
possible, but students are made aware that this cannot occur in all cases. Although AAPs encourage
students to meet with Subject Coordinators to discuss their circumstances, in the straightforward
cases it is likely an email response will suffice. Students with AAPs are still required to apply for
extensions in the usual manner and would still need to attend 80% of the tutorials or submit extra
work to meet this hurdle requirement, unless they negotiate an alternative arrangement with the
Convenor of Undergraduate Studies. It is the student’s responsibility to liaise with Stop 1 after the
examination timetable has been released to discuss their special examination arrangements. In the
first lecture of the subject please request all students with AAPs to immediately email you their AAPs.
If a student’s AAP requires an unusual adjustment, for example an extension in excess of 10 working
days or an alternative assignment, please discuss this with the DOTL before promising this adjustment.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Tutors should be instructed to check for plagiarism. While Turnitin can help with this, the algorithm it
is uses is rather crude so you need to manually check that plagiarism has actually occurred, discussed
below.
21If you believe that plagiarism has occurred, please take the following steps:
1) Contact Andrew Howes (andrew.howes@unimelb.edu.au) to check whether the student has
been recorded on the plagiarism database.
2) Please send the following to amy.perfors@unimelb.edu.au:
a. Student Name
b. Student Number
c. Student Email
d. Subject Code
e. Assignment
f. Results of the plagiarism check (from Step 1 above)
g. Name of person raising the plagiarism claim
h. Full TurnItIn Report (highlighting the overlap with the most relevant source. See details
below for how to do this).
i. Any additional comments
All of this information is required by the Deputy DOTL in order to make a judgement about how to
proceed.
Please note that you are no longer allowed to administer any penalty or reduction of marks unless you
formally charge the student with plagiarism via an appropriately convened committee. If two students
have colluded, both should be penalised, regardless of which student did the actual copying. For
further details, please see: http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/
Because we have recently experienced a large number of plagiarism cases, we request that all Subject
Coordinators do the following:
1) In the SAME folder in which student submit their assignments, please add this video
directly above the Turnitin submission links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boz1lFAxpZg
2) In the caption of the video, please write the following text: “The University takes
plagiarism very seriously and the penalties for plagiarism are severe. Because this
issue is so important, we have created a short video to remind students of the
different forms of plagiarism. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU WATCH THIS VIDEO BEFORE
SUBMITTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT.”
Generating TurnItIn Originality Reports (with only the most relevant source
highlighted)
One thing to be aware of is that TurnItIn can create false alarms by aggregating over multiple sources
of the same assignment. Below, the TurnItIn originality report indicates a high degree of similarity but
clicking the arrow on the top source (“View Match Breakdown”) indicates that the match is
22aggregated from many small matches.
Click Exclude Sources (at the bottom). Then click the check box at the top. This will exclude all
sources. Uncheck the first source as shown (leaving the rest ticked). This will return the overlap with
just the top matching assignment. This will be a better indication of the overlap (though you can
include more sources if you think it helps make the case easier to follow).
23Resubmitting Assignments
When students retake a course, they are not allowed to hand in an assignment that they handed in
the first time they took the course. Doing so would be self-plagiarism or “recycling”:
http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/
In keeping with Academic Board regulation 28.6 students need to be set and perform an alternative
assignment. In particular, they cannot be allowed to carry over their assignment mark from when they
previously did the subject.
https://about.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/19531/Academic-Board-Regulation.pdf
24The alternative assignment needs to be equivalent to the assignment that it replaces (MPF1326,
section 4.39-4.40). In particular, it should have the same word length and weighting. It should also
have the same format. Thus, if the original assessment was multiple choice, the alternative should
also be multiple choice.
http://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326#section-4.8
By the end of Week 3, the Subject Coordinator should obtain from the Academic Programs Manager
as list of all the students who have previously taken the course. These students need to be individually
contacted and informed that they will need to do an alternative assignment for any assignment that
they have previously submitted, regardless of whether or not they received feedback on that
assignment.
Releasing Assignment Marks
Students need to be emailed when the marks for an assignment are released. This is so they have the
option to apply for a remark in a timely manner. If students are not informed when the marks are
released, the time constraints listed in the section below do not apply, as the students have no way of
complying with them.
Remarking Procedures
As discussed in the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326), students are not automatically entitled
to have their result reviewed or their work marked by a different marker. Requests for a remark will be
assessed on an individual basis. Requests for remarking need to be made within 10 business days of
receiving the initial feedback. However, before the request can be made, students need to first meet
with their marker to discuss their feedback. The procedure is as follows:
1. Students need to wait a full business day after receiving the initial feedback and grade to
ensure that they have had adequate time to consider the initial feedback. In particular, they
should not approach their tutor before, during, or after a tutorial to discuss their feedback.
After one full business day they may email their marker to request a time to review their
assignment. Students are required to email their marker within three business days of
receiving their initial feedback.
2. Within one business day of receiving a request to review an assignment, the marker should
contact the student to arrange a time to meet. This meeting needs to occur within eight
business days of the student receiving the initial feedback. If students are unable to arrange
the meeting within this timeframe, they have been instructed to contact the Deputy Director
of Teaching and Learning. The student should bring the marked assignment and a copy of the
marking criteria to the meeting.
3. At the meeting, the marker will discuss the feedback against the criteria. The marker will not
provide a numerical breakdown of marks for each section of the report, but instead will
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