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Guidelines for Assessment
* The information on this page replaces the "Written Work: Guidelines for preparation of assignments and major project."
Most courses include assessments such as essays, online tasks, group work, reports or seminar presentations. Some courses are also assessed by examination. Details about assessment for individual courses are included with the course outline in the course materials. Below you will find information on how to prepare for assessment tasks and where to find further resources.
Submission of Assignments
- Format for submitting assignments:
- All assignments must have an Assignment Cover Sheet attached.
- All assignments should be submitted on A4 paper, typed with double line spacing, on one side of the page only. All pages should be numbered and have sufficient margin for comments (4 cm on the left and 2cm on the right hand side, top and bottom margins).
- Assignments submitted via Blackboard must be submitted using the Cover Sheet available in Blackboard.
- Don't forget to keep a copy (preferably an electronic copy) of your assignment for your records and in case the original copy goes astray.
Internal courses
- All assignments for internal students should be handed directly to the lecturer in class with Assignment Cover Sheet attached. If, for some reason, a student cannot submit in class, assignments can be put in the assignment box at the Postgraduate Coursework Office Reception on Level 2 of the Samuels Building.
External courses
- Students should note any specific assignment submission instructions in the relevant course outline.
- Electronic Submission of Assignments: Students submitting assignments electronically, either via Blackboard or email (directly to your lecturer) must make sure that their name and the course code is listed in the filename. Name, course code, date and assignment number and title should also be noted on every page. Faxed assignments will only be accepted if prior arrangements have been made with individual lecturers.
- For courses in which electronic submission is not available, assignments should be posted to Postgraduate Coursework Office with Assignment Cover Sheet attached. These assignments will be stamped with date of receipt and distributed to the relevant course convenor for marking. Post Assignments to:
Postgraduate Coursework Office
School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Level 2, Samuels Building
The University of New South Wales
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052
Australia
Return of Assignments
- Marked Assignments: Marked assignments for internal students to be collected by individual students from the School. Marked assignments for external students who have NOT submitted their assignment electronically will be posted back to students. Marked assignments submitted electronically will be sent back electronically by the lecturer, unless otherwise negotiated between academic and student.
- Extensions: Extension of up to one week is only granted if requested before the due date. Longer extensions are only considered with a medical certificate, unless other appropriate reason is given.
- Late Assignments: All late assignments (unless extension or exemption is previously agreed) will drop a grade. This rule applies if the assignment is one day or one week late. Assignments will not be marked if submitted after other students' assignments are returned.
- Re-submitting assignments: Only assignments awarded a Fail (FL) can be resubmitted for re-marking. The maximum grade that can be achieved after re-marking is a Pass (PS).
Examinations
- Internal students are required to sit the final exam at UNSW Kensington Campus. The examination period is held at the end of each session. The Examination Periods are listed online on the Examinations website.
- External students are required to sit the exam on the same day and time as internal students. External students who live or work in Sydney are required to sit the exam with the internal students on campus. External students outside this range who do not have access to campus will need to notify the School of their nominated invigilator (exam supervisor) by completing and returning an invigilator form that handed out during the residential workshop or sent with the course materials if there was no residential workshop for your course. Your invigilator is responsible for receiving, administering and returning your exam. Important criteria for nominating an invigilator are as follows:
The invigilator must:
- not be a relative/family member
- be above 21 years of age
The invigilator can be:
- a police officer at a local police station.
- a person who holds public office (for example, Town Clerk, Clerk of Petty Sessions)
- a principal of a TAFE College or School
- a Minister of Religion
Students who choose to arrange exam invigilation at another tertiary institution/organisation should check with the organisation if there are any charges for this service as students are responsible for any costs incurred.
Please note that your invigilator must be in attendance for the duration of the examination and the candidate must follow the UNSW rules for the conduct of examinations. Further details about examination timetables and special arrangements are also listed on the examination website.
If there are alterations to your invigilation arrangements after the due date, the School must be notified at once to ensure that your examinations are not affected.
Major Project Guidelines
Academic Writing
Information Skills and Referencing
- The UNSW Library has developed resources for students in the form of an online information skills tutorial, study skills tutorial and information literacy skills tutorial. It provides the opportunity for you to learn more about searching for information to support assignments, referencing, and self-directed learning.
- More resources are listed under Academic Skills on our School Resources page.
- A feature of academic writing is that it contains references to the words, information and ideas of others. Whenever you use any words, ideas or information from any source in your assignments, you must reference those sources. There are different referencing systems. A referencing system is used to:
- indicate the exact source of a quotation;
- acknowledge indebtedness for opinions or ideas;
- give the authority for a fact which may be open to reasonable doubt;
- acknowledge other writers' views which, if elaborated in the assignment itself, might distract the reader from the main stream of thought.
- As a student, it is your responsibility to learn one of the accepted academic methods for acknowledging sources of information (citing references) and then to use this method consistently. In general, the School uses either the Harvard system or the APA system. Guidelines for developing effective academic skills can be found on the Learning Centre website. Effective information skills, notetaking and referencing can avoid plagiarism.
Plagiarism - what is it and how can I avoid it?
Adapted from "Guidelines and Rules on Student Plagiarism: Handbook for Staff" (2005)
Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work or another as one's own. Examples include:
- direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying material, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document (whether published or unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, web site, Internet, other electronic resource, or another person's assignment without appropriate acknowledgement;
- paraphrasing another person's work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form and/or progression of ideas of the original;
- piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;
- presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor; and
- claiming credit for a proportion of work contributed to a group assessment item that is greater than that actually contributed.
- Submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for academic credit elsewhere may be considered plagiarism.
- Knowingly permitting your work to be copied by another student may also be considered to be plagiarism.
- Note that an assessment item produced in oral, not written form, or involving live presentation, may similarly contain plagiarised material.
- The inclusion of thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does notamount to plagiarism.
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More information on what constitutes plagiarism, and the procedures followed when plagiarism is suspected or identified, can be found on the Plagiarism and Academic Integrity webpage of the Learning Centre. See also the UNSW Student Conduct Policy.
Collusion
- The School recognises and encourages the need of external students to have contact with each other and where possible collaborate in their studies. However, there have been instances where students have copied each other's material and submitted it as their own. Lecturers, despite their heavy workload, are alert to this practice. It is emphasised that where collusion can be shown, the students involved may be required to rewrite and re-submit their assignments or may be awarded a fail for the assignment or may be failed in the whole course and even be excluded from the University for misconduct. You should not attempt the assignment questions together and submit the same work as someone else.
- It is also not acceptable to submit an assignment which has been submitted by a student in a previous year.
Academic Misconduct
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