Summary of assessment: Online reflections on lectures and readings, a creative process journal, a major creative work. 

Assessment rationale:  Assessment provides opportunities for students to show evidence of their understanding of theories of creativity, explore their own creativity and apply this to children’s learning.

Please note: You are required to submit all assignments. Failure to do so will result in a fail grade for the unit.

General assessment requirements

• All assignments must be submitted for students to pass the unit.
• Assignment 1 (reflective journal) will be submitted via iLearn.
• Assignment 2a (creative process journal) will be shown in progress during workshops (internal) and on-campus (external), as well as being handed in by post or delivery.
• Assignment 2b (major work) may be posted or delivered. This may involve making special arrangements with the unit convener, depending on the size and fragility of the work.
• All failing assignments will be double marked where failure relates to unsatisfactory content 

Assessment Presentation & Submission Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines when you submit each assignment:

• Allow a left and right-hand margin of at least 2cm in all assignments.
• Please type all assignments using 12-point font and 1.5 spacing.
• All assessments must be submitted through Turnitin in .doc or .pdf format
• It is the onus of the student to ensure that all assessments are successfully submitted through Turnitin.
• Faculty assignment cover sheets are NOT required.

Draft Submissions & Turnitin Originality Reports

• Students may use Turnitin’s Originality Report as a learning tool to improve their academic writing if this option is made available in the unit.
• Students are strongly encouraged to upload a draft copy of each assessment to Turnitin at least one week prior to the due date to obtain an Originality Report.
• The Originality Report provides students with a similarity index that may indicate if plagiarism has occurred. Students will be able to make amendments to their drafts prior to their final submission on the due date.
• Generally, one Originality Report is generated every 24 hours up to the due date.

When preparing your assignments, it is essential that:

• Students regularly save a copy of all assignments before submission,
• Unless there are exceptional circumstances, no assessment will be accepted after the date that the assessment has been returned to other students.
• If an assessment is considered to be below passing standard, another staff member on the unit will provide a second opinion. Failed assessments can not be re-submitted as they are all double-marked as a part of the moderation process.

Final Submissions

• Students are responsible for checking that their submission has been successful and has been submitted by the due date and time.

University policy on grading

Criteria for awarding grades for assessment tasks

Assignments will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the University's Grading Policy. The following descriptive criteria are included for your information.

Criteria for awarding grades in the unit

Students will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the policy: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment-in-effect-from-session-2-2016

The following generic grade descriptors provide university-wide standards for awarding final grades.

NOTE: Numerical marks will NOT be awarded for individual assessment tasks.

In this unit, all tasks will be reported by GRADES.

Marks are only shown for your final reported grade for this Unit.

Attendance for undergraduate units

All tutorials begin in the first week of classes.

Activities completed during weekly tutorials (internal) or on campus days (external) are essential for building the core knowledge and/or skills required to demonstrate the learning outcomes of this unit and to meet the AITSL Graduate Teacher Standards and/or ACECQA requirements. Attendance at all tutorials or on campus days is expected and the roll will be taken.

Students are required to attend the tutorial in which they are enrolled. Any changes to tutorial enrolments must be completed officially through e-student. Please do not contact the unit convenor requesting a change.

Unit Expectations

• Students are expected to read weekly readings before completing tasks and attending tutorials
• Students are expected to listen/attend weekly lectures before completing tasks and attending tutorials
• In order to receive a passing grade in this unit, you need to meet the following criteria:

• Have made a serious attempt at passing all pieces of work in order to pass the unit.
• In order to receive a grade of Pass, your total mark must be at least 50/100.
• Note: It is not the responsibility of unit staff to contact students who have failed to submit assignments.  If you have any missing items of assessment, it is your responsibility to make contact with the unit convenor.

Electronic Communication

It is the student’s responsibility to check all electronic communication on a regular weekly basis.  Communication may occur via:

• Official MQ Student Email Address
• The Dialogue function on iLearn
• Other iLearn communication functions

Assignment extensions and late penalties

Applications for extensions must be made via AskMQ at https://ask.mq.edu.au as a Special Consideration request before the submission date. Students who experience a disruption to their studies through ill-health or misadventure are able to apply for this request. Extensions can only be granted if they meet the Special Considerations policy and are submitted via https://ask.mq.edu.au/. This will ensure consistency in the consideration of such requests is maintained.

In general, there should be no need for extensions except through illness or misadventure that would be categorised as unavoidable disruption according to the University definition of same, see:

https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration

Late submissions without extension will receive a penalty of 5% reduction of the total possible mark for each day late (including weekends and public holidays). You are reminded that submitting even just 1 day late could be the difference between passing and failing a unit. Late penalties are applied by unit convenors or their delegates after tasks are assessed.

No assessable work will be accepted after the return/release of marked work on the same topic. If a student is still permitted to submit on the basis of unavoidable disruption, an alternative topic may be set.

Students should keep an electronic file of all assessments. Claims regarding "lost" assessments cannot be made if the file cannot be produced. It is also advisable to keep an electronic file of all drafts and the final submission on a USB untouched/unopened after submission. This can be used to demonstrate easily that the assessment has not been amended after the submission date.

Special Considerations

The Special Consideration provision is to support students who have been impacted by circumstances that are unexpected, unavoidable, significantly disruptive and beyond the student’s control, and which may affect their performance in assessment.

The University classifies a circumstance as serious and unavoidable if it:

• could not have reasonably been anticipated, avoided or guarded against by the student; and
• was beyond the student's control; and
• caused substantial disruption to the student's capacity for effective study and/or completion of required work; and
• occurred during an event critical study period and was at least three (3) consecutive days duration, and/or
• prevented completion of an assessment task scheduled for a specific date (e.g. final examination, in class test/quiz, in class presentation).

The following link takes you to the Special Considerations policy, which makes clear the ways in which you can apply for special consideration in times of difficulty.

https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration

Withdrawing from this UG Unit

If you are considering withdrawing from this unit, please seek academic advice by writing to https://ask.mq.edu.au before doing so as this unit may be a co-requisite or prerequisite for units in the following semesters and may impact on your progression through the degree.

Requesting a remark of an assignment

If you have evidence that your task has been incorrectly assessed against the grade descriptors you can request a re-mark.  To request a re-mark you need to contact  the unit convenor within 7 days of the date of return of the assignment and provide a detailed assessment of your script against the task criteria. Evidence from your assignment must be provided to support your judgements.

Please note: The outcome of a re-mark may be a higher/lower or unchanged grade. Grades are standards referenced and effort is NOT a criterion.

Other important policies

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy: http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy: http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html

Grade Appeal Policy: http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public:

 http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html​

Special Consideration Policy:

https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration The Special Consideration Policy is effective from December 4th 2017 and replaces the Disruption to Studies Policy.

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

This unit is offered in internal and external mode

Attendance at lectures, workshops and/or 2 on campus days, is a compulsory requirement of this unit. 

Internal students will attend a 1-hour lecture and 2-hour tutorial classes every week on the university campus. Timetable / location details for these tutorials can be found on the University website at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/ 

External students enrolled in this unit will attend two on campus sessions, scheduled for 21 and 22 September. If you foresee problems in attending the sessions, please let the Unit Coordinator know as soon as possible. Non-attendance can lead to exclusion from the Unit, so it is essential that you discuss difficulties or concerns with the Unit Coordinator. All lectures are digitally recorded and video captured live and available through the ECHO360 facility for you to listen to weekly. In some cases, lecture slides will also be posted on the unit website. 

All readings are available through the MQ Library Multisearch

The full list of readings for ECH454 is available on iLearn.