Coordinator and Chief Examiner roles
There are four main unit coordination roles in Biological Sciences:
1. Chief Examiner: is responsible for the implementation of the unit assessment regime and must recommend the final result for each student. The Associate Dean (Education) on the advice of each school appoints a Chief Examiner for each unit taught by the faculty.
2. Unit Coordinator: The Unit Coordinator is the academic staff member assigned to coordinate all unit academic and administrative activities for each mode and/or location. The unit Chief Examiner is also generally the Unit Coordinator; when this is not the case the Unit Coordinator works under the direction of the Chief Examiner.
3. Campus Unit Coordinator: where the unit runs on multiple campuses in a given semester, the
Campus Unit Coordinator typically has the responsibility of overseeing the local running of the unit. These units will also have a Chief Examiner who may be one of the Campus Unit Coordinators. Guidelines for the structure of Moodle pages that are taught cross campus can be found here.
4. Technical Teaching Coordinator: is primarily responsible for delivery of the technical and laboratory requirements for assigned units. Some administrative support can also be provided for units depending on the requirements and available staff resources.
Important links to faculty and university policies for coordinators:
Learning and Teaching Quality Procedure
Duties of a Unit Coordinator (with input from academic teaching team)
The coordinator is ultimately responsible for the quality of the unit. They must take responsibility for the educational contribution of the unit, the budget and appointment of teaching associates. These issues should be undertaken in collaboration with other academics teaching in the unit, and with the relevant technical staff.
Although most of the duties occur within each semester, there are tasks for unit coordinators before and after each semester.
1. Design and develop new lab classes: the academic lead for the laboratory session is to begin this task with plenty of lead time to establish a working protocol that can be scaled up for class roll out in the allocated session time (usually 2.5-3 hours). Teaching technical coordinators will assist in final testing of this laboratory, and where required, the purchasing of any consumables required for initial development.
2. Unit Lecture and Lab Timetable (November): the university timetable is drafted each November for the following year – all academic staff need to review the timetable for any issues regarding lecture and lab times. The Education Program Manager will coordinate this activity with the faculty. The new timetable is always published just prior to the re-enrolment period and is only available via the Timetabling tile on your my.monash portal.
3. Technical Teaching Coordinators (Oct-Feb): liaise with relevant technical staff to coordinate all pre-semester administrative matters.
4. Unit Budgets (December): every unit must make an estimate of all unit costs by completing the ‘Unit Budget Template’ each December. These must include: Teaching Associate hours, marking hours, consumable costs, equipment and any other unit operating costs such as field trips.
5. Teaching Associates (December): for planning purposes TAs should be assigned in each December to enable contracts to be arranged and compulsory faculty based ‘Teaching Associate’ training to be undertaken for all new TA’s.
Some important points:
a. Teaching Associates should be appointed in collaboration with other academic staff in the unit. (Note: School policy is that Honours students should not normally be used).
b. Teaching Associate rates must be at the normal rate, or at the PhD rate if appropriate.
c. All marking rates for assessments must be based on the original budget estimates and clearly communicated to all markers prior to starting the task.
6. Unit schedule of lectures and lab classes (S1: Dec/Feb; S2: June/July): liaise with other academic staff teaching in the unit to plan each week’s lectures and lab classes. Once complete, the webpage version can be completed by the tech staff and published on the school’s unit information page for each unit.
7. Moodle Unit Preview (S1: Dec/Feb; S2: June/July): complete the compulsory ‘Moodle Preview’ – this must include the details outlined on this page - https://www.monash.edu/learning-teaching/TeachHQ/moodle/structuring-moodle/how-to/moodle-unit-preview
a. Extra costs: The university handbook must list any additional costs that students may incur and which are permissible under the provisions of "Fees for goods and services incidental to studies" found in the DEEWR publication "Administrative Information for Providers: Student Support".
8. Lab manuals and other material (S1: Dec/Feb; S2: June/July): finalise all manuals at least 2 weeks before the start of each semester to ensure they will be available on Moodle for O-week.
9. Moodle (S1: Dec/Feb; S2: June/July): each unit’s Moodle webpage will be created by the Education Program Manager at least 2 weeks before the start of each semester (earlier on request) and will be based on the standard Faculty template and content from the previous year’s version. Extra training on the use of Moodle can be arranged centrally through staff development, or directly by the school’s education program manager. Teaching technical staff can also assist with setting up the Moodle sites before semester starts.
10. S-Drive Unit Folder (S1: Dec/Feb; S2: June/July): prior to the start of semester each unit’s ‘S:’ drive folder must be setup for the upcoming year and must be the sole repository of all important documents for each unit including lecture slides, recordings and video transcripts.
11. ‘Allocate+’ (S1: Feb/March; S2: July): students are allocated into lecture, workshop and lab classes via the university’s centralised allocation system: ‘Allocate+’. This process is managed by Timetabling and all students with any requests for changing their allocated lab classes must be directed to the Allocate+ webpage which has the relevant request forms linked. This process means that all students’ requests are treated equally and fairly across all units in the university.
1. Unit Delivery (Weeks 1-12): monitor the unit to ensure the weekly activities and assessment tasks are being delivered as planned.
2. Moodle (Weeks 1-12): Moodle is the university’s learning management system and primary tool for all student communications and assessments. Coordinators should use Moodle for all announcements and monitor ‘Discussion Forums’.
3. Unit Budget: Coordinators should monitor budgets each month to check on expenditure for each unit and notify the school manager if any variation from the initial budget forecast is expected.
4. Exam information, preparation and marking (S1: March & May, June; S2: July & Sept. October): coordinators will be contacted in each semester concerning the timetabling of exams and production of eExams.
a. Exam timetable: deadlines for the initial timetabling of exams is generally in first few weeks of each semester. Details of when the final exam schedule is published is available at the examinations unit website: http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/exam-dates.html
b. Exam deadlines: later in each semester there will be deadlines for completion of exam editing on the eAssessment platform. Examination papers must be saved as ‘PDF’ files and stored in the ‘S-drive-Marks’ folder for each unit and must not be e-mailed for security purposes. There must be two versions of each exam prepared: 1. the ‘Final Exam’ for the normal exam period and 2. The ‘Deferred Exam’ for the later deferred exam period.
c. An export of both exams must be stored on the S-Drive. Exam information for staff is available at examinations unit website:
https://www.intranet.monash/student-services/exams
d. Exam marking: The expectation is that the academic who sets a question for an exam will then mark that question. Practices other than this require authorisation from the HoS or the Director of Education.
5. Assessments (Weeks 1-12): monitor assessment tasks and ensure that marking guidelines are followed and consistent with the handbook and university policy bank. All in-semester assessments must be completed by the end of week 12.
Remarking Policy:
a. It is the student’s responsibility to check marked assignments upon return. Students are expected to raise with the marker or coordinator any queries about their mark as soon as possible but no later than two weeks after their release back to the students.
b. The full procedure for marking and feedback: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935752
6. Special Consideration Procedures: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935761
7. Late Penalties: Unit Chief Examiners of the Faculty of Science must ensure that a penalty for late submission of assignments is applied consistently in all units taught by their school, according to the following:
a. The penalty for assignments submitted late should be 10% of the maximum mark per day late or part thereof.
b. Weekends and holidays should attract the same penalty as week days.
c. No assignment can be accepted for assessment more than a week after the due date except in exceptional circumstances and in consultation with the Unit Coordinator.
d. Small assessment tasks of a value of no more than 5% of the final mark may be exempted from the above rules if deemed appropriate by the unit Chief Examiner.
e. Students must be informed of this penalty through the Unit Guide and/or the instructions given for each individual assignment.
8. Plagiarism Policy: Monash University is committed to upholding standards of academic integrity and honesty.
Monash students are therefore required to:
a. undertake studies and research responsibly and with honesty and integrity;
b. ensure that academic work is in no way falsified;
c. seek permission to use the work of others, where required;
d. acknowledge appropriately the work of others; and
e. take reasonable steps to ensure that other students are unable to copy or misuse their work.
f. Staff involved in learning, teaching and research are expected to display leadership in academic integrity and use a range of approaches to educate students to practise honesty in their academic work.
g. Plagiarism, collusion and cheating, including assisting others to cheat, are unacceptable and will be dealt with under Part 7 of the Monash University (Council) Regulations.
The framework can be found here: https://www.monash.edu/learning-teaching/teachhq/Assessment/academic-integrity
9. Field Trips: the school conducts a number of field trips which form all or part of the lab component for the unit concerned. Organisation of field trips will be done in conjunction with the relevant technical coordinator and there are important policies and guidelines that must be followed – some of these points are:
a. OHS Policies: there is a substantial policy document that all coordinators organising field camps must follow. There are legal obligations relating to ‘Duty of Care’ that all coordinators must be aware of and safe practices must be followed at all times. The OHS policy document can be found on the OHS website: https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/147145/OHS-Off-Campus-Activities-and-Travel-Procedure.pdf
b. Lab Time: the time students spend on field trips is counted as equivalent to the time they would normally spend in lab classes. Long field trips of 7-10 days would normally count as a full semester lab load.
c. Information to students: it is essential that students are given all important information about any field trips as early as possible – this is particularly important if extra costs or weekend work is required.
d. Impact on other units: it is important that field trips do not affect the students ability to attend other lectures or lab classes. Any field trip that takes longer than a normal 3 hr lab session must be conducted out of normal teaching time.
1. Coordination and reporting of final assessments (S1: June/July; S2: November):
Principles
a. Coordinators finalise and gain agreement on individual student marks only.
b. The examiner’s meeting approves all unit marks.
c. Raw marks of an individual student must not be changed by a coordinator acting alone.
d. Raw marks may only be changed by a coordinator in consultation with the other teaching staff in their unit(s) when a remark is required due to:
i. Failing mark: where an overall final mark of a student is 45 or less, a complete check shall be made of the final examination paper in question to establish that the examination marks and the in-semester marks have been tallied correctly. In addition, where the overall final mark is in the range of 45 to 49, the final theory examination paper must be remarked by a second marker. Records of all papers remarked shall be kept, including the names of the first and second markers and the date of the second marking.
ii. Marking error: when identified, any errors must be immediately corrected.
Chief examiner’s role before the Examiner’s meeting
a. Ensure that all failed students have had their examination reviewed in line with university policy.
b. Ensure that all marks are finalised 1 day before the examiners meeting to allow analysis of results for the meeting.
Role of unit Technical Coordinators before the Examiner’s meeting
a. Collate and finalise all semester results and convey to coordinators.
b. update any marks that have been revised
c. Save the final marks file to the unit Results folder of the appropriate unit on the S: drive marks folder and inform the Teaching Services Manager.
Role of the Teaching Services Manager at Examiner’s meeting
a. Prepare summary results of all units.
b. Present %Pass, %D&HD, Mean, Max, Min, Standard Deviation, and student number statistics for each unit. Prepare a histogram of final marks for each unit.
c. Present trends of unit statistics over the past four years, where available.
d. Select students who have taken at least three units in the School and present their marks across their common units.
Role of Chief Examiners at Examiner’s Meeting:
a. Each chief examiner to present their unit results and comment where appropriate on:
• particular issues for that year that might include distributions or general trends over the past four years
• any recommendations for unit-wide scaling.
b. All relevant staff should be involved in the Examiner’s Meeting to enable fully informed decisions, recognising that such decisions may affect all teaching staff.
Final submission of marks:
After the Examiners’ Meeting approves the final marks they are import into Callista via Moodle by the relevant technical staff. An export of these results is to be stored in the S:L marks folder for each unit.
a. Remarking of exams – If a student believes that there is an error in the marking of their final examination, the student must contact the Unit Coordinator of the relevant campus no later than two weeks after the release of the results for the unit.
If after discussing the matter with the Unit Coordinator of the relevant campus the student still believes that there is an error in the marking of their examination, the student may then proceed directly with a request for a remark according to procedures for in-semester remarking.
b. Deferred Final Assessment - These procedures apply to students eligible for deferred final assessment and enrolled in a course managed by the Faculty of Science, and to the final examination of a unit or the final report of a research unit.
The lodging of the deferred final assessment applications, their assessments and notification of the outcomes to the students must be carried out according to the university Special Consideration Procedures. The Chief Examiner (or a nominated representative) is required to available during this period.
c. Supplementary Assessment - Students can be granted supplementary assessment for up to two failed units in their course of enrolment.
Supplementary assessment for a unit is available in the cases outlined below:
1. Students enrolled in a single degree course managed by the Faculty of Science, or in a double degree course on the Sunway campus:
2. Supplementary assessment is available if
i. The unit is the last unit required to complete all course requirements, or
ii. The unit is a science unit, and the student has 30 credit points or less to complete all course requirements (including the unit failed).
3. Students enrolled in a double degree course with the Bachelor of Science:
Supplementary assessment is available for a science unit taken as part of the Bachelor of Science within a double degree course only when the unit is the last unit required to complete all science requirements of the course.
4. Special cases:
In special cases, not covered above, supplementary assessment for a unit may be approved by the Chair of the Board of Examiners on a case-by-case basis where a student experiences a significant impact on their academic progress in the course due to the failed unit.
If a student is able to enrol in other units or complete other parts of their course requirements while re-enrolling in the failed unit, they are not considered to have experienced a significant impact.
In all three cases,
• The failed unit must have been completed within the last 12 months;
• The final mark of the failed unit must be between 45 and 49; and
• The unit is the only unit failed in the relevant semester.
In addition, if supplementary assessment for a failed unit is granted:
• The type and method of supplementary assessment for the unit is determined by the Chief Examiner of the unit; and
• The maximum final mark and grade awarded for the unit after supplementary assessment has been completed is 50P.