Preamble
This repository of assessment exemplars illustrates how to design economics assessment tasks which explicitly and transparently map to the minimum learning standrds (LSs) for Bachelor and Masters graduates that are set out in the Economics Learning Standards for Australian Higher Education.
The repository was developed in a collaborative way by a core assessment project team of academic economists drawn from the initial Economics Learning Standards Working Party and Reference Group, and other advisors on assessment design and business education.
The LSs in the Economics Learning Standards represent the skills, knowledge and competencies that a graduate – at either Bachelor’s or Coursework Master’s level – can be expected to know, and be able to do, upon graduation. The aim of the LSs is to provide guidance to a range of stakeholders: academics seeking to benchmark their programs or design new programs, employers seeking to know what economics graduates can be expected to bring to an organisation as employees, prospective students and secondary school course advisors who want to know what economics is about, as well as the wider economics discipline community who have an interest in the future strength and sustainability of the economics discipline.
For LSs to be fit for purpose, the assessment tasks in each unit of study must be explicitly and transparently designed to address particular LSs, such that achievement of these LSs can be demonstrated by the end of the degree program. This is the primary motivation for developing this set of assessment task exemplars – that is, to provide guidance to those academic economists who want to ensure that their assessment is explicitly and transparently linked to the LSs.
Importantly, the exemplars seek to be authentic in that the tasks are set in the context of real world issues/situations, and focus on the application of knowledge and skills. The exemplars also illustrate innovative types of tasks, including approaches for assessing communication skills, both written and oral. The tasks typically ask students to appropriately frame the problem or issue in terms of economic principles, apply those principles and communicate the outcomes to appropriate audiences. The tasks may also require an ability to reflect on changes in economic thinking over time and on the interplay between economic events and development of theory and policy.
The exemplars cover the broad areas of macroeconomics, microeconomics, analysis/econometrics, international economics and economic thought. In each exemplar, an overview of the item is provided first which outlines what the assessment task seeks to achieve and how this is to be accomplished in terms of the use of assessment instrument. Details of the task are then provided assuming a bachelor’s assessment level with each part of the assessment item referencing particular LSs it is addressing. It is then demonstrated how the item can be adapted to cater for the master’s level (with similar reference to the LSs), followed by suggestions to academic economists about how the item might be used – perhaps in some adapted form - for different purposes, and/or how it might be adapted to assess different LSs at different levels.
We hope that academic economists will find this assessment repository a useful resource in guiding development of their own assessment tasks that are explicitly and transparently linked with the Economics Learning Standards for Higher Education.
Ross Guest and Allan Layton (co-Chairs of the Project Team).
This repository of assessment exemplars illustrates how to design economics assessment tasks which explicitly and transparently map to the minimum learning standrds (LSs) for Bachelor and Masters graduates that are set out in the Economics Learning Standards for Australian Higher Education.
The repository was developed in a collaborative way by a core assessment project team of academic economists drawn from the initial Economics Learning Standards Working Party and Reference Group, and other advisors on assessment design and business education.
The LSs in the Economics Learning Standards represent the skills, knowledge and competencies that a graduate – at either Bachelor’s or Coursework Master’s level – can be expected to know, and be able to do, upon graduation. The aim of the LSs is to provide guidance to a range of stakeholders: academics seeking to benchmark their programs or design new programs, employers seeking to know what economics graduates can be expected to bring to an organisation as employees, prospective students and secondary school course advisors who want to know what economics is about, as well as the wider economics discipline community who have an interest in the future strength and sustainability of the economics discipline.
For LSs to be fit for purpose, the assessment tasks in each unit of study must be explicitly and transparently designed to address particular LSs, such that achievement of these LSs can be demonstrated by the end of the degree program. This is the primary motivation for developing this set of assessment task exemplars – that is, to provide guidance to those academic economists who want to ensure that their assessment is explicitly and transparently linked to the LSs.
Importantly, the exemplars seek to be authentic in that the tasks are set in the context of real world issues/situations, and focus on the application of knowledge and skills. The exemplars also illustrate innovative types of tasks, including approaches for assessing communication skills, both written and oral. The tasks typically ask students to appropriately frame the problem or issue in terms of economic principles, apply those principles and communicate the outcomes to appropriate audiences. The tasks may also require an ability to reflect on changes in economic thinking over time and on the interplay between economic events and development of theory and policy.
The exemplars cover the broad areas of macroeconomics, microeconomics, analysis/econometrics, international economics and economic thought. In each exemplar, an overview of the item is provided first which outlines what the assessment task seeks to achieve and how this is to be accomplished in terms of the use of assessment instrument. Details of the task are then provided assuming a bachelor’s assessment level with each part of the assessment item referencing particular LSs it is addressing. It is then demonstrated how the item can be adapted to cater for the master’s level (with similar reference to the LSs), followed by suggestions to academic economists about how the item might be used – perhaps in some adapted form - for different purposes, and/or how it might be adapted to assess different LSs at different levels.
We hope that academic economists will find this assessment repository a useful resource in guiding development of their own assessment tasks that are explicitly and transparently linked with the Economics Learning Standards for Higher Education.
Ross Guest and Allan Layton (co-Chairs of the Project Team).