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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly increased capacity for producing textual, visual and auditory outputs, yet there are ongoing concerns regarding the quality of those outputs. There is an urgent need to develop students' evaluative judgement – the capability to judge the quality of work of self and others – in recognition of this new reality. In this conceptual paper, we describe the intersection between evaluative judgement and generative AI with a view to articulating how assessment practices can help students learn to work productively with generative AI. We propose three foci: (1) developing evaluative judgement of generative AI outputs; (2) developing evaluative judgement of generative AI processes; and (3) generative AI assessment of student evaluative judgements. We argue for developing students' capabilities to identify and calibrate quality of work – uniquely human capabilities at a time of technological acceleration – through existing formative assessment strategies. These approaches circumvent and interrupt students' uncritical usage of generative AI. The relationship between evaluative judgement and generative AI is more than just the application of human judgement to machine outputs. We have a collective responsibility, as educators and learners, to ensure that humans do not relinquish their roles as arbiters of quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To progress with their learning, students need to be able to make judgements about the quality of their own work and the work of others. This capability is known as evaluative judgement. The importance of evaluative judgement is well-established, but environments in which learners practice this capability remain unknown. This paper explores whether learners practice evaluative judgement within qualitative self-assessment. We conducted a thematic analysis of students' qualitative self-assessments from years one, three and four of construction management and building surveying courses and analysed approximately 430 pages of text. Our analysis indicated that learners often practised evaluative judgement during qualitative self-assessment even when such pedagogical activity was not specifically designed for this purpose. While constructing their professional knowledge, learners made evaluations of the quality of work, their own and the work of others. Based on our findings, we recommend that qualitative self-assessment is embedded within curricula to enable learners to practice evaluative judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 30 years, the notion of authentic assessment in higher education has been adopted in academic practice, but it has managed to escape substantial critique. Although there have been multiple definitions and operationalisations of authentic assessment, current practice tends to foreground mimicking of work tasks. Authenticity cannot be completely unmoored from the reality of workplaces, the demands of the discipline, and the overall intended learning outcomes, however, a restricted view of how these aspects are represented in assessment can limit the sector's ability to prepare graduates who can engage with and shape the changing world. This paper elaborates the multiple challenges that some conceptualisations of authentic assessment contribute to assessment planning, recognising that assessment design always requires compromise. Three theoretical perspectives on authenticity are introduced to open new possibilities for authenticity in assessment. These are (1) psychological authenticity; (2) ontological fidelity; and (3) practice theory perspectives. The final section discusses how learning design might offer a means to operationalise theory. The paper concludes by suggesting that authenticity in assessment continues to hold value for the sector beyond its current uses through stronger theoretical conceptualisation and operationalisation of authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback can be powerful, but its effects are dependent on what students do. There has been intensive research in recent years under the banner of 'feedback literacy' to understand how to help students make the most of feedback. Although there are instruments to measure feedback literacy, they largely measure perceptions and orientations rather than what learners actually do. This paper documents the development and validation of the Feedback Literacy Behaviour Scale (FLBS), which is a self-report instrument intended to measure students' feedback behaviours. A framework for feedback literacy was constructed with five factors: Seek Feedback information (SF), Make Sense of information (MS), Use Feedback information (UF), Provide Feedback information (PF), and Manage Affect (MA). An initial set of 45 questions were reviewed in an iterative process by feedback experts, resulting in 39 questions that were trialled with 350 student participants from four countries. Our final survey of 24 questions was generally supported by confirmatory factor and Rasch analyses, and has acceptable test-retest reliability. The FLBS provides a more robust way for educators and researchers to capture behavioural indicators of feedback literacy and the impact of interventions to improve it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators set restrictions in examinations to enable them to assess learning outcomes under particular conditions. The open book versus closed book binary is an example of the sorts of restrictions examiners have traditionally set. In the late 2000s this was expanded to a trinary to include open web examinations. However, the current technology environment, particularly for online examinations, makes this trinary not particularly useful. The web now includes generative artificial intelligence tools, and contract cheating sites, both of which are capable of completing examination questions within the examination period. Closed book, open book and open web no longer offers enough clarity or specificity when communicating examination restrictions. This article proposes a new taxonomy of restrictions for examinations, with a particular focus on online examinations. The taxonomy consists of three dimensions: information, people and tools. The paper explores the possible settings for those dimensions. Five criteria are provided to help examination designers in selecting restrictions: the learning outcomes being assessed; the feasibility of restrictions; consequential validity; authenticity; and values. Taken together, this taxonomy and the criteria provide ways of thinking about restrictions in examinations that can prompt educators towards examination designs that are more valid and robust against cheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote proctoring of exams is one of the most divisive issues in higher education. Critiques of remote proctoring abound, and there are a variety of perspectives particularly in relation to the advantages and disadvantages of this type of assessment, and opportunities for cheating. However, these perspectives are largely based on rhetoric with limited empirical data to support or refute the value of remote proctoring. This study used mixed-methods to investigate the experiences, and perceptions of cheating in open-book online proctored exams. An online questionnaire and interviews were conducted with students and academics. Data analysis revealed that the experience of online proctored exams was generally positive although there were mixed preferences for online versus on-campus exams. A variety of advantages and disadvantages of online proctored exams were also identified. Whilst both students and academics reported that they believed students would cheat, actual instances of cheating (as reported by students or academics) were minimal. This may have been because of the use of open-book exams. Based on these findings we comment on the reality versus the rhetoric relating to online proctored exams and suggest a range of ways forward for universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student feedback literacy has been the subject of much conceptual literature; however, relatively little intervention research has investigated how and if it can be developed. Further, no evaluation of the current empirical literature has been conducted to assess which elements of feedback literacy can be successfully improved in practice, and which elements need further investigation. This paper seeks to explore how different aspects of feedback literacy have been developed in higher education. A scoping review was conducted to address the foci, nature and success of interventions. The review found evidence that educational interventions enhanced feedback literacy in students, such as managing perceptions and attitudes, and having more confidence and agency in the feedback process. While some interventions have an effect on influencing student feedback literacy, both improved study design and intervention design are required to make the most of future feedback literacy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming apparent that generative AI has significant implications for education. However, previous technologies that have had a large impact, such as calculators, do not provide a suitable model for understanding how generative AI can and will be used in learning. Drawing on research on human-computer interactions, we map out a typology of possible student-to-generative AI relationships to afford a more nuanced discussion about what these new technologies can and should be used for in learning. Our contribution in this article is to offer a typology for considering the range of possible interactions across two dimensions of relationships. In doing so, we argue that there is not a single metaphor for the relationship between humans and AI in learning, but many. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective learning depends on effective feedback, which in turn requires a set of skills, dispositions and practices on the part of both students and teachers which have been termed feedback literacy. A previously published teacher feedback literacy competency framework has identified what is needed by teachers to implement feedback well. While this framework refers in broad terms to the potential uses of educational technologies, it does not examine in detail the new possibilities of automated feedback (AF) tools, especially those that are open by offering varying degrees of transparency and control to teachers. Using analytics and artificial intelligence, open AF tools permit automated processing and feedback with a speed, precision and scale that exceeds that of humans. This raises important questions about how human and machine feedback can be combined optimally and what is now required of teachers to use such tools skillfully. The paper addresses two research questions: Which teacher feedback competencies are necessary for the skilled use of open AF tools? and What does the skilled use of open AF tools add to our conceptions of teacher feedback competencies? We conduct an analysis of published evidence concerning teachers' use of open AF tools through the lens of teacher feedback literacy, which produces summary matrices revealing relative strengths and weaknesses in the literature, and the relevance of the feedback literacy framework. We conclude firstly, that when used effectively, open AF tools exercise a range of teacher feedback competencies. The paper thus offers a detailed account of the nature of teachers' feedback literacy practices within this context. Secondly, this analysis reveals gaps in the literature, signalling opportunities for future work. Thirdly, we propose several examples of automated feedback literacy, that is, distinctive teacher competencies linked to the skilled use of open AF tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback is powerful for learning in education, and the workplace. Work-integrated learning bridges these two settings, but how prepared students are to use feedback strategies as they enter the workplace remains unknown. This paper documents an exploratory, mixed-methods, study involving final-year occupational therapy students. The students were undertaking work-integrated learning to develop project management skills. The specific research questions addressed were; how feedback literate are final-year students; and, can feedback literacy (FL) education improve FL in preparation for the workplace? Likert scales, open response questions, and assessment rubrics were utilised. Opportunities for FL education were provided. Statistically significant differences between pre- and post-test survey responses were evident. Four qualitative themes were identified; enacting feedback, choice of feedback, emotional impact of feedback and value of the outsider perspective. Some students demonstrated sophisticated feedback capabilities. Others engaged tokenistically with feedback. Tentative support for the effectiveness of one FL intervention was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If feedback is to be conducted effectively, then there needs to be clarity about what is involved and what is necessary for teachers to be able to undertake it well. While much attention has recently been devoted to student feedback literacy, less has been given to what is required of teaching staff in their various roles in feedback processes. This paper seeks to elucidate teacher feedback literacy through an analysis of the accounts of those who do feedback well. An inductive analysis was undertaken of conversations about feedback with 62 university teachers from five Australian universities using a dataset of transcripts of interviews and focus groups from two earlier research studies. Through an iterative process a teacher feedback literacy competency framework was developed which represents the competencies required of university teachers able to design and enact effective feedback processes. The paper discusses the different competencies required of those with different levels of responsibility, from overall course design to commenting on students' work. It concludes by considering implications for the professional development of university teachers in the area of feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment has multiple purposes, one of which is to judge if students have met outcomes at the requisite level. Underperformance in assessment is frequently positioned as a problem of the student and attributed to student diversity and/or background characteristics. However, the assessment might also be inequitable and therefore exclude students inappropriately. To be inclusive, assessment design needs to be reconsidered, and educators should look beyond simplistic categories of disability or social equity groups, towards considering and accounting for diversity on many spectra. This article introduces the concept of assessment for inclusion, which seeks to ensure diverse students are not disadvantaged through assessment practices. Assumptions in assessment design are problematised from this point of view, and three central concerns relating to assessment traditions, assessment expectations, and academic integrity are interrogated. Contemporary design strategies of authentic assessment, programmatic assessment, and assessment for distinctiveness are then harnessed to illustrate approaches to assessment for inclusion. Assessment for inclusion therefore builds on the synergies between inclusive practice and good assessment design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing pressure is being placed on governments and legislators in different countries to take action against assignment outsourcing in higher education. Global discussions focus on prohibiting commercial outsourcing providers, such as contract cheating services. Despite evidence to suggest that outsourcing behaviours by students are increasing, and the number/reach of companies is increasing, little research has been undertaken to explore whether legislation will deter or prevent students from engaging in these dishonest behaviours. We investigated the issue of legality with higher education students, asking about their peers and their own assignment outsourcing behaviours, whether they believed such companies were already illegal, or whether they thought they should be illegal. Using quantitative analysis, responses from 7126 international participants were considered. We found that some students outsourced their assignments whether they thought it was illegal or not. Further, the majority of respondents argued that students should be impacted by any legislation, as well as the companies that provide outsourced work. The study presents evidence which should be considered in determining whether any law may have an effect to reduce assignment outsourcing behaviours in higher education students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback is a term used so frequently that it is commonly taken that there is a shared view about what it means. However, in recent years, the notion of feedback as simply the provision of information to students about their work has been substantially challenged and learning-centred views have been articulated. This paper employs a corpus linguistics approach to analyse the use of the term 'feedback' in research articles published in key higher education journals on the topic over two five-year periods: 2009–2013 and 2015–2019. Analysis focused on the most common noun modifiers of 'feedback' and nouns modified by 'feedback', verbs with 'feedback' as the object, possessors of 'feedback', and prepositions representing an action or concept on or with 'feedback'. Whilst the analysis demonstrated that transmission-focused conceptions dominate publications on feedback, linguistic signifiers of a shift over time in representation of feedback away from a transmission-focus towards a learning-focus were evident within each grammatical relation category. The data indicate that the term 'feedback' is used by different authors to refer to very different representations of the concept, and the paper proposes that greater clarity in the representation of feedback is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When students graduate, they cannot rely on educators telling them if their work is good enough. To do so, they need well-developed evaluative judgement, the capability to make decisions about the quality of their own and the work of others. There is little evidence about the specific approaches that can develop evaluative judgement—or how to study those approaches. Understanding how to research evaluative judgement in the context of pedagogical activities is essential to advance both research and practice. This paper explores how to research evaluative judgement within the context of a longitudinal reflective diary kept by first-year students in a built environment course. Students were required to observe construction and managerial processes on worksites and record these in their reflective diaries. Thematic analysis was conducted on a dataset comprising approximately 290 pages of text. Our analysis suggests it is possible to observe students' evaluative judgement even in some tasks that are not specifically designed to evidence it. Recommendations are made about improving the design and implementation of assessment tasks with the inclusion of reflective practices and dialogue as key enablers of the development and therefore research of evaluative judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback can occur before and after assessment submission, but needs to be useful in order for students to improve their subsequent performance. Arguably, undergraduate students, and particularly international, online and new students, are especially in need of feedback to effectively engage in academic and disciplinary expectations. Therefore, this article draws on survey data from students, disaggregated by mode of study, citizenship of enrolment and year of study, to explore their experiences of feedback usefulness both before and after assessment submission. Overall, undergraduate students were positive; however, this perception decreased according to their year level. Comparisons between online and international students also revealed key differences. A conclusion is that undergraduate students cannot be treated homogeneously, and educators need to attend to the feedback experiences of different student groups as they progress through their programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volcanic tremor occurring at the beginning of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption is characterized using both seismic and tilt data recorded at the Kīlauea summit. An automatic seismic network‐based approach detects several types of tremor including (a) 0.5–1 Hz long‐period tremor preceding the eruption, located at the south‐southwest edge of Halema'uma'u Crater and attributed to the quasi‐steady radiation from a shallow hydrothermal system and (b) two sequences of gliding tremor at the beginning of the eruption, both with locations on the edges of the crater and within it. The first sequence is attributed to two swarms of low‐amplitude regularly repeating earthquakes induced by the jerky motions of a cylindrical rock piston with radius of 325 m, height of 250 m, and mass of 2.07 × 1011 kg, progressively intruding 12.3 m into the shallow hydrothermal system with volume of 108 m3 and depth extent of 300 m. The second sequence is attributed to a gradual evolution in the properties of a bubbly magma within an east‐striking dike below Halema'uma'u Crater, impacted by repeated roof collapses. A fluid‐filled crack model points to a decrease in gas volume fraction from 4.22% to 1.6 × 10−2% in the magma filling the dike, and a model of gas retro‐diffusion within the melt suggests a two orders of magnitude decrease in bubble number density from 7 × 108 m−3 down to 4 × 106 m−3. Both models feature a quasi to totally degassed magma by May 26. Plain Language Summary: We analyze tilt and broadband seismic data recorded at the beginning of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption to provide an integrated view of distinct tremor sources that preceded and accompanied this eruption. Studying the beginning of the eruption is a key aspect for understanding the dynamics of the different processes that took place during the lava lake withdrawal started on May 2 and during the 12 collapses that occurred in Halema'uma'u Crater through May 26. Tremor sources are characterized in unprecedented detail by automatically detecting and locating them, and by modeling their source processes. Our analyses document one tremor source active during the period preceding the eruption, which is attributed to the quasi‐steady radiation from a shallow hydrothermal system located at the south‐southwest edge of Halema'uma'u Crater. These analyses further document two newly described sequences of gliding tremor. The first sequence is attributed to progressive jerky intrusions of a rock piston into a shallow hydrothermal reservoir between May 7 and May 14. The second sequence is attributed to the gradual degassing of a bubbly magma within an east‐striking dike below Halema'uma'u Crater, impacted by repeated roof collapses, and resulting in a quasi to totally degassed magma by May 26. Key Points: First detailed analysis of tremor sources associated with collapses in Halema'uma'u Crater at the beginning of the 2018 Kīlauea eruptionLong‐period tremor prior to the eruption is attributed to the steady radiation from a shallow hydrothermal system at the S‐SW edge of Halema'uma'uGliding tremor is attributed to a rock piston intruding into the hydrothermal system and changes in dike resonance beneath Halema'uma'u [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis that a perinatal educational dietary intervention focused on 'eating for the gut microbiota' improves diet quality of pregnant women pre- and postnatally.Design: The Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids study is a prospectively registered randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a dietary intervention in altering the maternal and infant gut microbiota and improving perinatal diet quality. Eligible pregnant women were randomised to receive dietary advice from their healthcare provider or to additionally receive a three session dietary intervention. Dietary data were collected at gestation weeks 26, 31, 36 and postnatal week 4. Outcome measures were diet quality, dietary variety, prebiotic and probiotic food intakes, energy, fibre, saturated fat and discretionary food intakes. Between-group differential changes from baseline before and after birth in these dietary measures were assessed using generalised estimating equations.Setting: Melbourne, Australia.Participants: Healthy pregnant women from gestation week 26.Results: Forty-five women were randomised (twenty-two control, twenty-three intervention). Compared with the control group, the intervention group improved diet quality prior to birth (5·66 (95 % CI 1·65, 9·67), Cohen's d: 0·82 (se 0·33)). The intervention improved dietary variety (1·05 (95 % CI 0·17, 1·94), d: 0·66 (se 0·32)) and increased intakes of prebiotic (0·8 (95 % CI 0·27, 1·33), d: 0·91 (se 0·33)) and probiotic foods (1·05 (95 % CI 0·57, 1·53), d: 1·3(se 0·35)) over the whole study period compared with the control group.Conclusion: A dietary intervention focused on 'eating for the gut microbiota' can improve aspects of perinatal diet quality during and after pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the business disciplines, there is a disconnection between what employers expect graduates to do and what graduates are actually able to do. Limited research has been done on the interfaces of professionals' aspirations, university instructors' enactment, and university learners' experiences. To address this well-felt gap, we conducted a series of interviews with employers in the industry and designed a peer-assessment loop consisting of rubrics co-construction, rubric-guided learning and performance, rubric-referenced peer review, and rubric-referenced reflection in a university course. Learners' views on and experiences in the assessment processes were explored through analysing their written reflections. The paper provides an empirical example of designing and enacting signature assessment. The design of case-based peer assessment loops with co-constructed rubrics mirrors the operational genres, cognitive challenges, and emotional dynamics of business professional practices. Researching the benefits and challenges of this assessment design contributes to sustaining student learning in and beyond higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can learners be supported to engage productively in the kinds of feedback practices they may encounter after they graduate? This article introduces a novel concept of authentic feedback to denote processes which resemble the feedback practices of the discipline, profession or workplace. Drawing on the notion of authentic assessment, a framework for authentic feedback is proposed with five dimensions: realism, cognitive challenge, affective challenge, evaluative judgement and enactment of feedback. This framework is exemplified and interrogated through two cases of authentic feedback practice, one in the subject of digital media in an Australian university, the other focussed on bedside rounds in medicine at a university in Hong Kong. The framework enables the identification of both highly authentic aspects of feedback, and aspects that could be made more authentic. The framework informs the design of feedback practices that carry the potential to bridge university and workplace environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students use various licit and illicit substances to enhance their academic performance. As yet, no study has explored whether this is an issue of concern for those working in the higher education sector. This study aimed to explore study drug policy, regulatory environments and responses within Australian universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants from five Australian universities. Nine participants were based in school/department, faculty, or institutional head of teaching and learning roles; six participants were in student support roles. Eight participants had direct teaching experience. Three themes emerged from the data analysis. Study drug use was seen as a health problem rather than a threat to academic integrity. Participants believed that attributes of the university setting may facilitate study drug use, but also considered that some attributes may prevent the uptake of use, such as a stronger emphasis on universities promoting the benefits of a balanced lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respect plays a crucial role in maintaining feedback interactions and sustaining student engagement with feedback. However, previous feedback literature has only mentioned respect in anecdotal accounts, and as a uni-dimensional notion. Drawing upon the philosophical distinctions among kinds of respect, this conceptual paper argues that respect is multi-faceted and constitutes an important aspect of student feedback literacy. We identify evaluative, directive and care respect as three essential kinds of respect in the co-constructive process of feedback. Institutional and obstacle respect also influence learners' knowing, being and acting in feedback interactions. The feeling of disrespect arises when there are tensions over respect-related perceptions and practices between people with different roles. As educators, we can promote respect in feedback through facilitating dialogues in the co-constructive process, minimising cues of disrespect resulting from tensions around learners' interpretation, expectation or embodiment of respect, and nurturing a safe space to reflect on and practice respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is now extensive research on informal feedback seeking behaviour by employees in organisations, this literature has received limited attention in higher education. This paper addresses the gap between the two fields of feedback literacy and feedback seeking behaviour. Key organisational feedback seeking behaviour concepts including employee intentions in seeking feedback, the practice of weighing costs and benefits before seeking feedback, the qualities sought in potential feedback providers, feedback seeker characteristics that influence feedback seeking behaviour, and a range of feedback seeking methods and outcomes are outlined and their potential implications for feedback literacy are considered. The paper draws on feedback seeking behaviour literature to propose a research agenda for establishing a stronger and more nuanced understanding of feedback literacy in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' performance prediction is a crucial task in today's online education. By predicting a student's final grade in an academic examination, intervene can be applied in advance. Recently, many machine learning models have been designed to couple students' online activity with their academic performance. However, it is difficult for these models to effectively make prediction due to the excessive difference in feature selection. While in most cases, too many parameters and heterogeneous features can also be one of the main sticking points. To this end, we propose a sequential engagement based academic performance prediction network. It consists of two main components: an engagement detector and a sequential predictor. The engagement detector leverages the advantages of a convolutional neural network to detect students' engagement patterns through their daily activities. The sequential predictor adopts the structure of long short-term memory and learns the interaction from the engagement feature spaces and demographic features. By comparing with various existing advanced machine learning models, the results show that this method has better performance than the existing ones when involving the engagement detection mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geysers are rare geologic features that intermittently discharge liquid water and steam driven by heating and decompression boiling. The cause of variability in eruptive styles and the associated seismic signals are not well understood. Data collected from five broadband seismometers at Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone National Park are used to determine the properties, location, and temporal patterns of hydrothermal tremor. The tremor is harmonic at some stages of the eruption cycle and is caused by near‐periodic repetition of discrete seismic events. Using the polarization of ground motion, we identify the location of tremor sources throughout several eruption cycles. During preplay episodes (smaller eruptions preceding the more vigorous major eruption), tremor occurs at depths of 7–10 m and is laterally offset from the geyser's cone by ~5 m. At the onset of the main eruption, tremor sources migrate laterally and become shallower. As the eruption progresses, tremor sources migrate along the same path but in the opposite direction, ending where preplay tremor originates. The upward and then downward migration of tremor sources during eruptions are consistent with warming of the conduit followed by evacuation of water during the main eruption. We identify systematic relations among the two types of preplays, discharge, and the main eruption. A point‐source moment tensor fit to low‐frequency waveforms of an individual tremor event using half‐space velocity models indicates average VS ≳ 0.8 km/s, source depths ~4–20 m, and moment tensors with primarily positive isotropic and compensated linear vector dipole moments. Key Points: Hydrothermal tremor source locations during geyser preplays are generally stable at depth but are shallower just before the main eruptionTemporal evolution of preplays at Lone Star Geyser is systematic and influences the main eruptionBest fitting moment tensors of a discrete tremor event contain primarily positive isotropic and compensated linear vector dipole moments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contract cheating happens when students outsource their assessed work to a third party. One approach that has been suggested for improving contract cheating detection is comparing students' assignment submissions with their previous work, the rationale being that changes in style may indicate a piece of work has been written by somebody else. This approach is time consuming, but recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing suggest that it may be well suited to computerization. We trialed an early alpha version of Turnitin's Authorship Investigate tool, which compares students' submissions against their previous work. Twenty-four experienced markers from five units of study were asked to make decisions about the presence of contract cheating in bundles of 20 student assignments, which included 14 legitimate assignments and six purchased from contract cheating sites. We asked markers to determine if each assignment was contract cheating, then provided them with an Authorship Investigate report and let them change their decision. Marker accuracy at detecting contract cheating increased significantly, from 48% to 59% after using the report, with no significant difference in false positives. These findings suggest that software may be an effective component of institutional strategies to address contract cheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-year university students' underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students' perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students' perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers' classes. Findings highlight that fostering students' academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers' goals of developing learners' academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective 'card' played by teachers to nurture students' appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contract cheating happens when students commission someone else to do assessed work for them. While it is already illegal in 18 jurisdictions, others are considering making the provision of contract cheating services illegal. To date, legal approaches to addressing contract cheating have faced little scrutiny in the peer reviewed literature. This article outlines some challenges with the legal approach to combating contract cheating. To this end it examines a segment of the contract cheating market to determine if contractors operate in localities where contract cheating services have been made illegal. The results suggest that contractors operate in plain sight, offering services to and from localities where services are prohibited by law. On the basis of the current challenges with enforcement of legal rules, this article recommends some alternative strategies for addressing contract cheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing leadership in students is part of the remit of higher education institutions. In recent decades, student leadership development programs have proliferated at universities worldwide. However, the contested understanding of the term 'leadership' has resulted in lack of clarity regarding how this may be 'developed' in higher education. There are many programs that contribute towards developing leadership in students and not all of them do so explicitly. Moreover, in the absence of clear conceptual underpinnings and pedagogic approaches, it is questionable whether these programs can deliver the graduate capabilities employers are increasingly expecting. Recognising this diversity and range of different understandings of leadership that underpin these programs, this paper presents an overarching inclusive framework that provides guidelines to support quality assurance across the broad range of leadership development initiatives in higher education. The paper describes the development of the framework, explains its core components and provides an illustration of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasing focus on assessment feedback, educators continue to find that simply replicating an effective feedback practice from one context does not guarantee success in the next. There is a growing recognition that the contextual factors surrounding successful practices need to be considered. This article reports on a large-scale mixed methods project and proposes 12 conditions that enable successful feedback in higher education. The conditions were distilled from seven rich case studies through multiple stages of thematic analysis, case comparison and reliability checking. The conditions were also evaluated by surveying senior leaders of Australian universities. These conditions highlight the importance of carefully designing feedback processes, along with the need for addressing capacity and culture for feedback. This helps to explain why there are such variances in effective feedback across contexts, and offers insight into how it may be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contract cheating occurs when students outsource assessed work. In this study, we asked experienced markers from four disciplines to detect contract cheating in a set of 20 discipline-specific assignments. We then conducted a training workshop to improve their detection accuracy, and afterwards asked them to detect contract cheating in 20 new assignments. We analysed the data in terms of sensitivity (the rate at which markers spotted contract cheating) and specificity (the rate at which markers spotted real student work). Pre-workshop marker sensitivity was 58% and specificity was 83%. Post-workshop marker sensitivity was 82% and specificity was 87%. The increase in sensitivity was statistically significant, but the increase in specificity was not. These results indicate that markers can often detect contract cheating when asked to do so, and that training may be helpful in improving their accuracy. We suggest that markers' suspicions may be crucial in addressing contract cheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing significance has been ascribed to student engagement, as a measure of success of both teachers and programs. However, since users of the term commonly tend not to explain, rationalise or problematise their understanding of engagement, its value to understand or transform learning may be limited. While clarification has occurred in conceptual work, there is a lack of empirical work that extends beyond understandings of engagement-as-behaviour, as well as insufficient work exploring what students understand engagement to be. Further, much work on engagement is rooted in physical campuses and face-to-face delivery, which represents an incomplete picture of how students actually engage in study. This article investigates student perceptions of engagement in two blended learning Initial Teacher Education programs. It offers a critical discussion of how research can be re-considered in light of changing learning contexts and changing understandings of ways to investigate engagement. The findings of this study support previous work that found multiple levels and meanings of student engagement exist. New complex and multidimensional models of engagement are proposed, which can open new possibilities for designing studies and analysing findings. This article argues that including and questioning physical, virtual and political contexts and power, affect, relationships, linearity and essential measurability are important features of new models of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long period (LP) seismicity is a ubiquitous feature at Mammoth Mountain, California. Phase‐based locations exhibit source depths ranging from ∼8 to 25 km. Between September 2011 and October 2013, over 200 LP events were added to the Northern California Earthquake Data Center catalog. Three typical LP events were used as master events, and continuous waveform correlation was performed over the 2‐year period, with the results indicating that thousands of LP events were present in the continuous seismic data. Using phase‐weighted stacking, representative network stacks for the three events were produced. Full waveform inversion of the representative events using Green functions that adequately represent the topography of Mammoth Mountain and the high‐resolution velocity structure produced through local earthquake tomography suggest that all three event types are located within ∼100 m of the surface in the vicinity of the Chair 12 tree kill and CO2 emission area and within ∼1 km of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area base lodge. The source mechanisms are purely volumetric and can be attributed to a subhorizontal hydrothermal crack excited into acoustic resonance by the rapid discharge of CO2 gases trapped in the crack. An accompanying vertical force that is opposite in phase to the volume change in the crack can be attributed to pressure and momentum changes in an adjacent fluid‐filled conduit linking the crack to the surface. The implication of this work is that LP seismicity at Mammoth Mountain occurs almost continuously and in direct contradiction to the traditional view—at very shallow depths. Key Points: Long period seismicity at Mammoth Mountain between 2011 and 2013 occurred at shallow depthsLong period seismicity is attributed to the excitation of shallow subhorizontal hydrothermal cracksDriving force is the discharge of CO2 from the underlying gas reservoir [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' capacity for making evaluative judgements of their own work is widely acknowledged as central to their learning within programmes as well as being vital to their subsequent professional practice. In higher education literature, the act of evaluative judgement is usually portrayed as a process of deliberative, analytical reasoning requiring student agency and objectivity, typically scaffolded by points of reference such as explicit criteria, rubrics or exemplars. This article challenges this common portrayal of judgement by drawing attention to research from outside higher education on the role of unconscious factors in judgement and decision-making. Drawing from the field of heuristics and bias studies, the article outlines six unconscious factors that have the potential to distort students' analytical judgement of their work. A recent challenge to the heuristics and bias approach that radically repositions the place of reasoning in judgement is also considered. Since these unconscious factors have received scant attention in higher education literature, the purpose of this article is to draw attention to them, to identify the challenges they pose to current understandings of evaluative judgement, and to outline their implications for enhancing assessment practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective - especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student's own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluative judgement is the capability to make decisions about the quality of work of oneself and others. In this paper, we propose that developing students’ evaluative judgement should be a goal of higher education, to enable students to improve their work and to meet their future learning needs: a necessary capability of graduates. We explore evaluative judgement within a discourse of pedagogy rather than primarily within an assessment discourse, as a way of encompassing and integrating a range of pedagogical practices. We trace the origins and development of the term ‘evaluative judgement’ to form a concise definition then recommend refinements to existing higher education practices of self-assessment, peer assessment, feedback, rubrics, and use of exemplars to contribute to the development of evaluative judgement. Considering pedagogical practices in light of evaluative judgement may lead to fruitful methods of engendering the skills learners require both within and beyond higher education settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When researchers selectively report significant positive results, and omit non-significant or negative results, the published literature skews in a particular direction. This is called ‘reporting bias’, and it can cause both casual readers and meta-analysts to develop an inaccurate understanding of the efficacy of an intervention. This paper identifies potential reporting bias in a recent high-profile higher education meta-analysis. It then examines a range of potential factors that may make higher education learning and teaching research particularly susceptible to reporting bias. These include the fuzzy boundaries between learning and teaching research, scholarship and teaching; the positive agendas of ‘learning and teaching’ funding bodies; methodological issues; and para-academic researchers in roles without tenure or academic freedom. Recommendations are provided for how researchers, journals, funders, ethics committees and universities can reduce reporting bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment as a field of investigation has been influenced by a limited number of perspectives. These have focused assessment research in particular ways that have emphasised measurement, or student learning or institutional policies. The aim of this paper is to view the phenomenon of assessment from a practice perspective drawing upon ideas from practice theory. Such a view places assessment practices as central. This perspective is illustrated using data from an empirical study of assessment decision-making and uses as an exemplar the identified practice of ‘bringing a new assessment task into being’. It is suggested that a practice perspective can position assessment as integral to curriculum practices and end separations of assessment from teaching and learning. It enables research on assessment to de-centre measurement and take account of the wider range of people, phenomena and things that constitute it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘peer assessment’ may apply to a range of student activities. This imprecision may impact on the uptake of peer assessment pedagogies. To better describe peer assessment approaches, typologies of peer assessment diversity were previously derived from the education literature. However, these typologies have not yet been tested with ‘real-life’ peer assessment examples, nor do they consider broader contextual matters. We present an augmented peer assessment framework, refined through analysing faculty accounts of their peer assessment practices. Our framework subsumes previous attempts to classify peer assessment, and extends them to include technology use, resources and policy, which were new features of our data not present in previous frameworks. In the current higher education climate, these considerations may be crucial for the scalability and success of peer assessment. The framework proposed in this paper provides both precision and concision for researchers and educators in studying and implementing peer assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite compelling evidence of its potential effectiveness, uptake of self and peer assessment in higher education has been slower than expected. As with other assessment practices, self and peer assessment is ultimately enabled, or inhibited, by the actions of individual academics. This paper explores what academics see as the benefits and challenges of implementing self and peer assessment, through the analysis of interviews with 13 Australian academics. Thematic analysis of our qualitative data identified seven themes of benefits and five challenges. Our academics showed strong belief in the power of self and peer assessment as formative assessment, contrary to past literature which has focussed on the accuracy of students’ marking. This paper therefore brings insights as to not only what academics value about self and peer assessment but also identifies potential inhibitors in practice. Recommendations are made about improving the design and implementation of self and peer assessment in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contract cheating is the purchasing of custom-made university assignments with the intention of submitting them. Websites providing contract cheating services often claim this form of cheating is undetectable, and no published research has examined this claim. This paper documents a pilot study where markers were paid to mark a mixture of real student work and contract cheating assignments, to establish their accuracy at detecting contract cheating. Seven experienced markers individually blind marked the same bundle of 20 second-year psychology assignments, which included 6 that were purchased from contract cheating websites. Sensitivity analyses showed markers detected contract cheating 62% of the time. Specificity analyses showed markers correctly identified real student work 96% of the time. Our results contrast with contract cheating sites’ claims that contract cheating is undetectable. However, they should be taken with caution as they are from one course unit in one discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite widespread recognition of the need to improve assessment in higher education, assessment tasks in individual courses are too often dominated by conventional methods. While changing assessment depends on many factors, improvements to assessment ultimately depend on the decisions and actions of individual educators. This paper considers research within the 'heuristics and biases' tradition in the field of decision-making and judgement which has identified unconscious factors with the potential to limit capacity for such change. The paper focuses on issues that may compromise the process of improving assessment by supporting a reluctance to change existing tasks, by limiting the time allocated to develop alternative assessment tasks, by underestimating the degree of change needed or by an unwarranted overconfidence in assessment design decisions. The paper proposes countering these unconscious limitations to change by requiring justification for changing, or not changing, assessment tasks, and by informal and formal peer review of assessment task design. Finally, an agenda for research on heuristics and biases in assessment design is suggested in order to establish their presence and help counter their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are dissonances between educators' aspirations for assessment design and actual assessment implementation in higher education. Understanding how assessment is designed 'on the ground' can assist in resolving this tension. Thirty-three Australian university educators from a mix of disciplines and institutions were interviewed. A thematic analysis of the transcripts indicated that assessment design begins as a response to an impetus for change. The design process itself was shaped by environmental influences, which are the circumstances surrounding the assessment design, and professional influences, which are those factors that the educators themselves bring to the process. A range of activities or tasks were undertaken, including those which were essential to all assessment design, those more selective activities which educators chose to optimise the assessment process in particular ways and meta- design processes which educators used to dynamically respond to environmental influences. The qualitative description indicates the complex social nature of interwoven personal and environmental influences on assessment design and the value of an explicit and strategic ways of thinking within the constraints and affordances of a local environment. This suggests that focussing on relational forms of professional development that develops strategic approaches to assessment may be beneficial. The role of disciplinary approaches may be significant and remains an area for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Rubric’ is a term with a variety of meanings. As the use of rubrics has increased both in research and practice, the term has come to represent divergent practices. These range from secret scoring sheets held by teachers to holistic student-developed articulations of quality. Rubrics are evaluated, mandated, embraced and resisted based on often imprecise and inconsistent understandings of the term. This paper provides a synthesis of the diversity of rubrics, and a framework for researchers and practitioners to be clearer about what they mean when they say ‘rubric’. Fourteen design elements or decision points are identified that make one rubric different from another. This framework subsumes previous attempts to categorise rubrics, and should provide more precision to rubric discussions and debate, as well as supporting more replicable research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we investigate competition in education, asking if it is good or bad, and especially if it is old and necessary or new and questionable. Using philological methods, we trace the history of competition and relate it to contemporary educational ideas. In history and modern pedagogical research, competition has a ‘dark side’ as well as energising qualities. We question the inseparability of competition and education, and, weighing up the moral and pedagogical benefits and dangers, we advocate moderation in educational competition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A wide range of technologies has been developed to enhance assessment, but adoption has been inconsistent. This is despite assessment being critical to student learning and certification. To understand why this is the case and how it can be addressed, we need to explore the perspectives of academics responsible for designing and implementing technology-supported assessment strategies. This paper reports on the experience of designing technology-supported assessment based on interviews with 33 Australian university teachers. The findings reveal the desire to achieve greater efficiencies and to be contemporary and innovative as key drivers of technology adoption for assessment. Participants sought to shape student behaviors through their designs and made adaptations in response to positive feedback and undesirable outcomes. Many designs required modification because of a lack of appropriate support, leading to compromise and, in some cases, abandonment. These findings highlight the challenges to effective technology-supported assessment design and demonstrate the difficulties university teachers face when attempting to negotiate mixed messages within institutions and the demands of design work. We use these findings to suggest opportunities to improve support by offering pedagogical guidance and technical help at critical stages of the design process and encouraging an iterative approach to design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]