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Assessment

Accreditation period Units 1 and 2 from 2025; Units 3 and 4 from 2025

General assessment advice

Advice on matters related to the administration of Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) is published annually in the VCE Administrative Handbook.

Updates to matters related to the administration of VCE assessment are published in the VCAA Bulletin. Subscribe to the VCAA Bulletin.

Teachers must refer to these publications for current advice.

The VCE assessment principles underpin all VCE assessment practices and should guide teachers in their design and implementation of School-assessed Coursework (SACs) and School-assessed Tasks (SATs). When developing SAC and SAT tasks, teachers should also refer to the VCAA policies and school assessment procedures as specified in the VCE Administrative Handbook section: Scored assessment: School-based Assessment.

The VCAA assessment principles determine that assessment of the VCE should be:

  • valid and reasonable
  • equitable
  • balanced
  • efficient.

Essentially, these principles invite schools and teachers to create assessment practices, including tasks and tools, that enable students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the outcome statements, and the key knowledge and key skills through a range of opportunities and in different contexts (balanced), that do not advantage or disadvantage certain groups of students on the basis of circumstances and contexts (equitable), that are not overly onerous in terms of workload and time (efficient) and that only assess that which is explicitly described in the study design.

The glossary of command terms provides a list of terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F–10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations and to help students better understand the requirements of command terms in the context of their discipline.

VCE Applied Computing Study Design examination specifications, past examination papers and corresponding examination reports can be accessed from the VCE examination webpages.

Graded Distributions for Graded Assessment can be accessed from the VCAA Senior Secondary Certificate Statistical Information webpage.

Excepting third-party elements, schools may use this resource in accordance with the VCAA’s Educational Allowance (VCAA Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy).

Units 1 and 2

All assessments for Units 1 and 2 are school-based. The determination of a satisfactory (S) or not satisfactory (N) for each of Units 1 and 2 is a separate consideration from the assessment of levels of achievement. This distinction means that a student can receive a very low numerical score in a formal assessment task but still achieve an S for the outcome.

The decision about satisfactory completion of outcomes is based on the teacher’s judgment of the student’s overall performance on a combination of set work and assessment tasks related to the outcomes. Students should be provided with multiple opportunities across the learning program to develop and demonstrate the key knowledge and key skills required for the outcomes for the unit. If a student, in the judgment of the teacher, did not meet the required standard for satisfactory completion of the outcome through the completion of the set work and assessment task(s) then they should be afforded additional opportunities to demonstrate the outcome through submitting further evidence; for example, a teacher may consider work previously submitted (class work, homework), additional tasks or discussions with the student that demonstrate their achievement of the outcome (i.e. a student can demonstrate their understanding in a different language mode, such as through speaking rather than writing) as further evidence provided it meets the requirements and is consistent with the established school processes.

Procedures for assessment of levels of achievement in Units 1 and 2 are a matter for schools to decide. Schools have flexibility in deciding how many and which assessment tasks they use for each outcome, provided that these decisions are in accordance with VCE Applied Computing Study Design and VCE Assessment principles

Teachers should note the cognitive demand of the command terms in the outcome statements to determine the type of teaching and learning activities and evidence of student understanding that will be needed for students to demonstrate satisfactory completion of each outcome.

Units 3 and 4: Data analytics – School-assessed Task

When designing learning activities for the School-assessed Task, teachers will refer to the problem-solving methodology specifications, and the areas of study and outcomes, including key knowledge and key skills, as listed in the VCE Applied Computing Study Design.

The following table gives a breakdown of the four stages of the problem-solving methodology for the School-assessed Task.

Unit 3 Outcome 2
Unit 4 Outcome 1
Analysis Design Development Evaluation

Project management

  • Create, monitor and modify project plans (Gantt chart)

Project management

  • Monitor, modify and annotate project plans
  • Assess the effectiveness of the project plan

Analysis

  • Propose a research question
  • Analyse and document solution requirements, constraints and scope
  • Searching, collecting, referencing and managing data sets

Design

  • Generate design ideas
  • Develop evaluation criteria
  • Produce detailed designs

Development

  • Conduct statistical analysis
  • Secure data
  • Develop infographics and/or dynamic data visualisations
  • Validate, verify and test

Evaluation

  • Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the infographics and/or dynamic data visualisations

Unit 3 Data analytics

Sample approaches to developing an assessment task

Area of Study 1

On completion of this unit the student should be able to interpret teacher-provided solution requirements and designs, extract data from large repositories, manipulate and cleanse data, conduct statistical analysis and develop data visualisations to display findings.

Unit 4 Data analytics

Sample approaches to developing an assessment task

Area of Study 2

On completion of this unit the student should be able to respond to a teacher-provided case study to analyse the impact of a data breach on an organisation, identify and evaluate threats, evaluate current security strategies and make recommendations to improve security strategies.

Units 3 and 4: Software development – School-assessed Task

When designing learning activities for the School-assessed Task, teachers will refer to the problem-solving methodology specifications, and the areas of study and outcomes, including key knowledge and key skills, as listed in the VCE Applied Computing Study Design.

The following table gives a breakdown of the four stages of the problem-solving methodology for the School-assessed Task.

Unit 3 Outcome 2
Unit 4 Outcome 1
Analysis Design Development Evaluation

Project management

  • Create, monitor and modify project plans (Gantt chart)

Project management

  • Monitor, modify and annotate project plans
  • Assess the effectiveness of the project plan

Analysis

  • Document a problem,
    need or opportunity
  • Collect data
  • Apply analysis tools
  • Determine solution
    requirements,
    constraints and scope
  • Document a software
    requirements specification

Design

  • Generate design ideas
  • Develop evaluation
    criteria
  • Produce detailed designs

Development

  • Develop a software solution
  • Write internal documentation
  • Use appropriate data types, data structures and data sources
  • Apply suitable naming conventions
  • Apply validation techniques
  • Apply debugging and alpha testing techniques
  • Conduct beta testing

Evaluation

  • Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the software solution

Unit 3 Software development

Sample approaches to developing an assessment task

Area of Study 1

On completion of this unit the student should be able to interpret teacher-provided solution requirements and designs and use appropriate features of an object-oriented programming language to develop working software modules.

Unit 4 Software development

Sample approaches to developing an assessment task

Area of Study 2

On completion of this unit the student should be able to respond to a teacher-provided case study to analyse an organisation’s software development practices, identify and evaluate current security controls and threats to software development practices, and make recommendations to improve practices.

Performance descriptors

The VCAA performance descriptors are advice only and provide a guide to developing an assessment tool when assessing the outcomes of each area of study. The performance descriptors can be adapted and customised by teachers in consideration of their context and cohort, and to complement existing assessment procedures in line with the VCE Administrative Handbook and the VCE assessment principles.

VCE performance descriptors can assist teachers in:

  • moderating student work
  • making consistent assessment
  • helping determine student point of readiness (zone of proximal development)
  • providing more detailed information for reporting purposes.

Using VCE performance descriptors can assist students by providing them with informed, detailed feedback and by showing them what improvement looks like.

Teachers can also explore the VCE performance descriptors with their students, unpacking the levels of expected performance so students have a clear understanding of what can be possible in terms of development and achievement.

When developing SAC tasks, teachers are advised to adapt the VCAA VCE performance descriptors to relate to the SAC task used and their school context. Teachers should use their professional judgment when deciding how to adapt the rubrics, considering the VCE assessment principles the requirements of the relevant study design, the relevant outcome, key knowledge, key skills and assessment tasks, and the student cohort.

Teachers may consider using the following guidelines when adapting the VCE Performance descriptors and/or developing an assessment tool:

  • Develop the SAC task and assessment rubric simultaneously.
  • Assess the outcome through a representative sample of key knowledge and key skills. Not all key knowledge and key skills will be formally assessed in a SAC task – some key knowledge and key skills are observable in classroom engagement and learning – but all criteria in any assessment tool must be drawn directly from the study design.
  • Select the components of the VCE Performance descriptors that are most appropriate and most relevant for the selected outcome and SAC task.
  • Attempt to capture the skill level of a range of students within the cohort: the lowest expected quality of performance should be something most or all students can do, and the highest expected quality of performance should be something that extends the most able students. Similarly, ensure that the range of qualities identified in the rubric shows the lower and the upper range of what an individual student could show in terms of the outcome, key knowledge and the key skills.
  • Where necessary, add specific key knowledge and/or key skills to provide context to the expected qualities of performance.
  • Where necessary, remove expected qualities of performance that may not be relevant to the selected outcome and developed SAC task.
  • Show a clear gradation across the expected qualities of performance, indicating progression from one quality to the next.
  • Use consistent language from the study design outcome, key knowledge and key skills.
  • Ensure command terms reflect the cognitive demands of the outcome. Refer to the glossary of command terms for a list of terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F–10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations.