ACS and Markbooks

ACS---ACT Certification System URL: acs.bsss.act.edu.au

ACS holds the following information for all ACT Senior Secondary Students:

• Student data

• Course and Unit studied data

• Markbook data

• Units

• Assessment Instrument results

• VET by school-based RTOs data

• Moderation data

• Scaling groups data

• Scales and informs ATAR

• Produces Certificates

ACS Markbooks are where all assessment data is stored for your students. Your Faculty Leader or an appointed colleague will set up Markbooks for your faculty. You will need to ensure the Assessment Task Names and Weightings align with the Unit Outline and are accurate from the start of the semester.

Once students have submitted assessment tasks, they have been marked, graded and any meshing required is completed, marks and grades should be entered into Markbooks. Before entering marks, ensure you have set the Maximum Mark allowed and remember to save as you go. You can use the grade cutoffs feature on assessment tasks.

Markbooks are needed for ALL A, T & M units.

T markbooks can only be Year 11 or 12 and in one scaling group.

Other than that, a markbook can have more than one unit attached but everything in the same markbook must have same assessment item names, weights, and marks/scores be directly comparable.

For example, all performing arts units (Music, Drama and Dance) might be in the same markbook this means that the first assessment has to be the same for all

• Essay worth 30% (out of 50 marks)

• Practical Task worth 30 % (out of 45 marks)

• Process Diary worth 40% (must be worth 100 marks).

Now although each unit will have a task specific to their subject area the Title, Weighting and Marks need to be the same.

Need to know concepts:

• Notional zero

  • • Where students hand in an assessment more than seven days late or fail to hand in assessment item, they will be awarded a notional zero for that assessment item. The notional zero will be a score, which lies between 0.1 of a standard deviation below the lowest genuine score for that item and zero.

• Current assessment data adjustments in ACS

  • • Not submitted

    • Late

    • Insubstantial Attempt

    • Breach of academic integrity

    • Estimates

Notice the three areas highlighted in green. BEFORE you start putting in data for assessment results, make sure the Maximum Mark is changed to the actual maximum mark for the assessment.

To see all classes data press the Expand All Button.

Once all marks, grades and adjustments have been entered for an assessment, be sure to press to AI Published button to allow students access to their results online. The turn around time for this should be 3 weeks from the due date of the assessment task.

ACS is a fairly 'mature' database and we are continually updating features when resources are available. Certification Officers are made aware of all ACS changes and will communicate those to you as needed.

Here is a guide to using ACS Markbooks.

As a reminder from workshop 1:

Every assessment item requires both a grade and a score in all units. The grade and score recorded on in the ACS Markbook must match the grade and score students receive on their returned assessment task. Any moderating that needs to be done at the assessment level must be completed before students receive their results.

Assessment tasks need to be returned to students within a timely manner so that they can digest their feedback and use that for their work on future assessment tasks. The BSSS recommends assessments tasks be given back to students within a maximum of 3 weeks of submission date and that assessment tasks timelines allow for students to receive their feedback BEFORE the next assessment task is due.