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Myths
- Publicly available tasks can be used unmodified.
- All students need to complete their assessment at the same time to ensure authenticity.
- Group work cannot be assessed.
- Authenticity checks aren't needed if an authenticity declaration is signed.
- Digital assessment allows more opportunity for authenticity breaches.
- You can withdraw a student's entry for a proven authenticity breach.
On this page
Facts
- Schools must change publicly sourced assessment material. Changes can include:
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- specific figures or text
- data sets or sources
- contexts, topics or performance opportunities.
- Students don't need to complete the same assessment task or be assessed at the same time. Some students may need a separate task or context to make sure authentic work is submitted.
- Tasks can be broken into group and individual components to identify individual evidence.
- A Not Achieved result must be reported for proven authenticity breaches that compromise a student's result.
- School policy will determine if a proven authenticity breach for internally assessment standards is an acceptable reason for a further assessment opportunity.
- Assessors can monitor the authenticity of student work as it's developed and during marking through:
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- regular check points
- asking students to submit plans and drafts
- oral questioning to confirm understanding
- asking for a repeat performance, if in doubt
- being familiar with or controlling the resources available
- referencing and bibliographies
- monitoring revision changes
- using plagiarism software or internet searches of suspicious phrases.
More information
NZQA Assessment Rules for Schools, TEOs assessing against Achievement Standards, and Candidates 2023
More points about authenticity
Authenticity checks provide assurance that evidence produced is a student's own work.
Inauthentic work may be a result of:
- a lack of understanding of the assessment task or what constitutes inauthentic work and plagiarism
- copying from another person or public source, or plagiarism
- too much guidance from a teacher, assessor, parent or tutor
- willingly sharing work with other students.