The Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Australia

Since 2009 there has been increased interest in Australian universities’ ability to demonstrate that their students have acquired knowledge and skills as specified by them in the form of graduate attributes or institutional learning outcomes. This paper describes research undertaken in Australia to identify a comprehensive set of generalized learning outcomes for undergraduate study and a set of criterion-based standards to assist in grading of achievement of those outcomes. It was discovered that although Australian universities document institutional- and course-based learning outcomes for their programs, they generally do not assess students at this level. Instead, the majority of assessment of learning outcomes is at the subject level, and frequently these outcomes do not align well with the course- or institutional-based outcomes that have also been specified. In spite of this, it appears possible to identify generalized assessment tasks for subjects and use constructive alignment between subjects, course curriculum, and chosen course-based learning outcomes, which could be used to reliably measure course outcomes and compare results between universities. These developments are framed in terms of the assessment transparency framework, which provides insight into the current “as-is” situation as well as an indication of what is needed to move learning outcomes assessment toward a fully implemented “ideal” across the higher education sector.