Implementing Common Assessment: Lessons and Models from AMAC Developed by the Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration

The aim of this document is to provide insight into the implementation of common assessments in higher education in order to assist in future work on conducting these kinds of projects. The discussion here draws heavily on the AMAC experience, attempting to broaden the learning from this project for use in future collaborations. The focus of this project has been on medical education, and as such, much of the detail is related to this field. However, it is hoped that the general ideas discussed here can be seen as informative for other fields and disciplines in higher education and at least provide some guidance for those considering undertaking collaborations involving common assessment. This document is focused on the practical implementation of such an initiative and intended as a reference for developing steps in the process of undertaking and administering common assessments across higher education institutions. This document examines four important facets of implementation of common assessments in higher education: models of implementation, population identification, timing of assessment and reporting. It concludes with some synthesis of these four areas. The focus of this document is the experience of developing and administering AMAC and thus the detail relates to the activities of AMAC implementation in medical schools in Australia and New Zealand.