Why do mapping?

Although of no use to students, mapping is useful for staff in these ways:

1. If you follow a procedure, you will get faster and more efficient with practice.
2. Assessment tool writers can plan assessments to ensure they meet all requirements.
3. When people revise your assessment tools, they will be able to see how you did it. (And if it's you, you will probably need a reminder of how you did it.)
4. If you cluster units and assess them together but students do not pass some requirements, you can use your mapping to find out which were passed and which were not.
5. Supervisors and auditors will check that your tools comply with the course requirements. The SNR doesn't say much about tools but the only way you can comply with some requirements is to have auditable tools. The standards are interpreted as requiring RTOs to prove that each separate requirement is addressed and that RTOs can demonstrate compliance with all assessment requirements. Just claiming to meet the requirements is inadequate.

A simple approach

This is a simple way to write mapping for assessment tools. It works quite well:

1. Write unit requirements in the tools. However, they should be unobtrusive the keep the tools clear and prevent student confusion. One option is to use abbreviations (e.g. "AC" for Assessment Context, "RE" for Required Evidence), in small, gray printing, and explain abbreviations somwhere else in an easy to find location. (Another way is to put mapping nores in footnotes or endnotes.
2. Check that the items can cover all unit requirements. This is not just elements and performance criteria, but anything else as well.
3. Check that sufficient evidence is being gathered for each element (two items unless specified otherwise).