Learning and Teaching

Real-time Reporting 2020

After over 18 months of investigation, preparations were made in the latter part of 2019 to enable some subtle but important changes to the way that student learning is assessed and the results reported to students and parents.

Semester Reports

It has been a long-standing arrangement that parents receive a written summary of all of their son’s learning over a semester, in the form of a written report. This report generally included pages of detailed assessment task results, the level at which skills in that subject had been developed, work habits, etc. Another page featured a written comment from the student’s Mentor, instances of absence and lateness and co-curricular involvement. 

Whilst there has been value in this document, it has not sufficiently supported the sharing of information about a student’s progress with parents at a time when it is most likely to be acted upon — during the course of the semester, rather than at the end. For this reason, the College will be shifting the emphasis from the end of the semester reporting to more frequent communication throughout.

The main vehicle for this communication is our online learning management system – OLLIE.

OLLIE and Real-time Reporting

OLLIE has been in place at De La Salle for several years now. It is a powerful platform for teachers to use to help in the learning and teaching process. 

It is a resource repository, an organisational tool for students, a way to communicate, collaborate and so much more. OLLIE has been designed to enable learning to be posted or submitted by students, be assessed by the teacher and feedback provided to students and parents in a very efficient way. 

This is where the term ‘Real-time Reporting’ comes from – assessment is reported as it happens, rather than at the end of the year or semester. Our teachers have been building their proficiency in the use of this complex system since its introduction, with 2020 a perfect time for us to commit to using it as the primary reporting tool for all student learning.

What that means is that parents and students will have access to assessment information, including deadlines, from the beginning of each new semester. Teachers will be posting assessment results within two weeks of the assessment deadline. This will maximise the opportunity for successes and shortcomings to be addressed in the learning that immediately follows. 

Assessment Rubrics

For Years 5–10, rubrics will be used as the predominant tool for assessing and reporting progression in learning. Rubrics are written expressions of the steps involved in the incremental development of a skill. They help students to understand more clearly what they are showing proficiency in and what the next steps are for them to improve and develop further. 

In the VCE years, VCAA requirements dictate the way that we assess work. Often that involves numerical results for achievement in a specific task.

Throughout the course of a semester, parents should expect to be receiving notifications about upcoming due dates, as well as the publication of results via OLLIE. 

Semester Reports – Changed, Not Abandoned

The end of semester reports will not be done away with entirely. Feedback from a parent focus group last year indicated that more content in the Mentor report would be welcomed. We are resolved to attend to that. Other, less necessary elements of semester reports will no longer be presented in the same way though, due to that information being made available throughout the semester.

A lot of thought has been given to the changes outlined above, and we expect there may be a period of ‘teething’ as teachers become used to the detail of the new expectations. Also, parents will need to be confident in being able to access and navigate OLLIE in order to access their son’s results. With all of this in mind, we are optimistic that OLLIE will provide the best platform in an ongoing way for the rich and timely communication – ‘real-time reporting’, that will be assist each student to learn best.

Mr Mark Gustincic
Deputy Principal – Learning and Teaching

Back to The Duce Issue 2020 01 - 13 February 2020