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Contract cheating sites advertise that they provide high quality, undetectable, bespoke work delivered in a timely manner to students purchasing their assignments. This paper tests contract cheating sites' promises about the products they sell. We built on previous reported research examining contract cheating sites' persuasive features which were mapped into three major dimensions. In this study, we explore how those dimensions are realised in practice. By purchasing 54 assignments from 18 different contract cheating sites across a range of disciplines, we found contract cheating sites' promises flawed. Many sites do not deliver assignments on time, or at all; they provide variable quality assignments (including fail grade work), and do not necessarily respond rapidly to user queries. When markers graded work, 52% of cheated tasks failed to meet the university pass standard. Furthermore, many contract cheating sites retain the right to share personal details with third parties under their privacy clauses and require levels of personal identification that leave users vulnerable. Students need to be aware that contract cheating sites' slick advertising is not necessarily borne out in reality. Universities can draw on this study's findings for student awareness and deterrence campaigns pointing out the risks of using contract cheating sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaches to curriculum design often occur at the unit or course level within social work education. Only rarely have ‘whole of curriculum’ approaches been discussed in the literature. This paper describes the creation of a ‘whole of curriculum approach’ to social work teaching and learning within an Australian University. The project involved the creation of a methodology and conceptual framework to map assessment across an entire social work curriculum. In doing so, the mapping exercise provided a way to evaluate the sequencing and integration of assessment tasks across the four-year degree pathway, and judge the effectiveness that such assessments fit with theories and research on assessment more broadly, and with the graduate outcomes for a social work degree. This paper outlines the background to the 2013 assessment project and its alignment to the curriculum mapping. It argues and explains how a systematic approach to mapping and improving social work curriculums can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the author reports on an analysis of an Australian university's assessment procedure. The procedure - a major governance document of the university - is deconstructed by way of a Foucauldian discourse analysis in order to consider how students and academics are governed. There were three major findings. The dominant discourse operating in relation to student assessment was that of administration; a finding consistent with previous work in this area and at other universities. The main subject position in this discourse of administration is one of silence for the academic and of a performer for the student, one who is rewarded with the award of a degree if the performance is satisfactory. The passion to learn and to teach is nowhere to be found in this administrative discourse, one not unique to the said university, indeed one that flourishes in Western universities today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Critical thinking' is commonly included in the lists of graduate attributes (GAs), which all Australian universities are now required to develop and implement. That efforts to do so have met with limited success is due to a range of factors including inconsistent or naive conceptualisations, the failure to explicitly develop or assess GAs, and the persistence of 'signature' disciplinary practices. This paper describes the design and implementation of a law course in which the development and assessment of critical thinking were core objectives. Key features of the course included an operational conceptualisation of 'critical legal thinking', the development of closely aligned teaching and learning activities, and an aligned, coherent and innovative assessment programme. An evaluation of the first iteration of the course identified a number of successful outcomes as well as implications for ongoing course development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the delivery and assessment strategies used in two structural mechanics units at Deakin University, a leader in distance education in Australia. The two units have had unacceptably high rates of student failure. Student perceptions of the delivery method were analysed and an investigation was carried out of the performance of 329 (173 on- and 156 off-campus) students enrolled in the two units. An analysis of the assignment, laboratory and examination marks is presented. Consideration is also given to the total marks. The results show that on-campus students performed better in structural mechanics than their off-campus counterparts. Plots of the distributions of student performance for the three assessment methods are provided (for each unit) and high failure rates are linked to low examination marks. Students tended to perform best in assignments and worst in examinations. Parametric statistical tests show a correlation between the marks obtained in continuous assessment and in examinations, and it is therefore proposed that, in order to improve performance, the students must be encouraged to participate fully in all aspects of the course. Many students were unenthusiastic about laboratory practical sessions and did not think they aided their understanding of the theoretical material. Motivation to participate is often dependent on the perceived relevance of a given task and its contribution to the total mark and, thus, to help motivate students to participate fully in the continuous assessment tasks, the authors propose several changes to the delivery methods, as well as to assessment criteria and marking schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education sector is increasingly reliant upon casual (‘sessional’) staff for teaching and marking purposes. While this practice has been little examined in the past, over the last few years increasing attention has been paid to the quality of marking, mainly because students and academic staff alike are becoming increasingly likely to question examples of poor practice. Hence, many universities in Australia are now attempting to introduce stricter procedures relating to marking. Despite current concerns, there is little published research on marking practices in Australian universities. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by reporting on two pieces of empirical research into the use of casual markers. A project at Charles Sturt University comprised focus groups of, respectively, students, lecturers and markers, and a survey of distance education students. Research at the University of South Australia focused on pedagogical issues relating to marking, comparing the approaches of permanent lecturing staff with those of sessional markers. The results of these projects provide a useful insight into areas of current concern to university staff and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]