Cadmus - a new tool to support assessment design
Academic integrity is one of the key tenets of academic scholarship. Upholding the associated values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage requires educators to model these values and practices for students. To develop the fundamental skills associated with academic integrity, staff require awareness, resources and tools.
The University’s approach to academic integrity is an educative one, supported by best practice interventions for the prevention and detection of breaches, inadvertent or otherwise. As part of the suite of learning and teaching tools to support academic skill development, the university is piloting Cadmus. Cadmus is an online assessment tool that supports end to end assessment design and delivery. Cadmus embeds academic integrity skill development both within the assessment design and the tool itself rather than focusing on detection after submission of assessment is complete.
“The integration of Cadmus had two outstanding achievements: 1. the enhancement of personalised feedback for every student, with 94% accessing and using their feedback in order to effectively contribute to their formative group assessment, 2. the identification of students who need further support in developing their academic writing skills, cognisant of academic integrity.” Dr Esma Dogramaci, Adelaide Dental School
Cadmus assessment design incorporates educational approaches to promote student learning and prevent academic misconduct by embedding academic integrity within assessment tasks. Integrated with MyUni, it supports written assessment tasks, including essays, annotated bibliographies, literature reviews, laboratory reports, etc. Iterative assessment workflows enable students to obtain feedback throughout the assessment process.
“The Cadmus interface was easy to use and provided a seamless platform for delivering instructions to students which built on what was discussed in-class. As a result, we saw a significant improvement in the skills developed, as well as individual assessment grades compared to previous semesters.” Dr Bonnie Williams, School of Biomedicine and Academic Integrity Officer, Adelaide Medical School
Staged assessments with clear instructions and learning support including nudges for academic referencing are built directly into assessment tasks. Students complete notes, drafts, and final submissions ‘live’ within the Cadmus platform. This means that students work is visible throughout the lifecycle of the assessment. Insights are provided throughout an assessment task, enabling visibility of student engagement with assessment.”
“A real benefit of the tool is the ability to have all assignment instructions and extra resources together in one document, with check boxes enabling the students to track their progress through the tasks.” Dr Alex Whittaker, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Cadmus allows authentication and veracity of student authorship, as it tracks the full lifecycle of a student’s individual contributions of assessment over time. Data is captured throughout an assessment task, enabling point in time referencing support for students. Cadmus also provides direct links to institutional support resources, within its assessment design.
“I like the opportunity Cadmus gives to direct students to useful academic writing resources.” Julia Miller, School of Education
The pilot includes 8 courses representing all Faculties, and is designed to determine the most appropriate assessment items for use of the tool. Approximately 800 students have now had the opportunity to trial the tool, with evaluation scheduled to take place in early December. Staff who are interested in using the tool for teaching purposes in 2022 are invited to contact joanne.england@adelaide.edu.au.