“The fact that Cadmus is one platform that can accommodate multiple formats of assessment not only made it easier to diversify task types, but it also helped me to scaffold the overall assessment design across the course."

For Kosta Lucas, Lecturer in Social Justice within the School of Arts & Sciences at The University of Notre Dame Australia, assessment plays a central role in helping students understand how human rights and social justice concepts operate in the real world.

The course introduces students to universal human rights, exploring the contested nature of these ideas through multiple perspectives and historical contexts. Students engage with key areas of human rights using examples and case studies, with a strong focus on how social justice issues relate to everyday life and contemporary social change.

Designing assessment for applied social justice learning

Learning outcomes for the course emphasise critical thinking and application. Students are expected to describe and explain key concepts of social justice — including dignity, equality, power, and human rights — and apply these concepts to contemporary local and international issues.

They are also encouraged to develop a critical awareness of their own role within society, understand the relationship between social justice and social change, and access and apply current evidence to real-world issues.

With a cohort of 20 students, assessment needed to support depth, rigour, and authenticity, while encouraging students to engage critically with complex and sometimes contested material.

Why Cadmus

Rather than relying solely on traditional exams, Kosta designed a mixed assessment model combining research-based reports and a take-home test. Cadmus supported this approach by enabling assessments that reflected the kinds of analysis, synthesis, and evidence-based reasoning used in real-world human rights and civil society work.

The course included three assessment items:

• Take Home Test
• Human Rights Media Review
• Shadow Report

Together, these assessments encouraged students to connect theory, evidence, and contemporary social justice issues, reinforcing applied learning across the semester. Cadmus then provided a flexible way to:

• Deliver research-based written assessments
• Support open-book, timed take-home tests
• Use a range of question types within a single assessment workflow

This allowed assessment to better reflect the kinds of analysis, synthesis, and critical engagement required in social justice and human rights work.

Assessment spotlight: Shadow Reports

A key assessment in the course was the Shadow Report.

Shadow reports are a recognised mechanism through which non-government organisations (NGOs) present the perspectives of civil society on government action to UN Committees. In this course, shadow reports provided a powerful example of authentic assessment, requiring students to engage directly with real-world human rights processes.

Through Cadmus, students were able to research, structure, and submit these reports in a way that aligned academic learning with professional human rights practice.

Assessment spotlight: Take-home tests

The course also included timed, open-book take-home tests, delivered through Cadmus as a non-secure exam.

Using Cadmus’ time limit functionality and multi-format assessment capabilities, educators employed a variety of question types designed to assess interpretation, application, and critical reasoning — rather than memorisation.

Outcomes for students

Across the course, the assessment approach supported strong engagement and outcomes:

• 98% average submission rate
• 96.5% average pass rate

Student experience data was not reported due to a low response rate.

Reflecting on impact

By embedding Cadmus into the assessment design, the course strengthened the alignment between social justice theory and authentic practice.

Assessment became a way for students to practise the kinds of critical analysis, evidence use, and applied reasoning required in human rights work — while giving educators confidence that assessment remained consistent, rigorous, and aligned to learning outcomes.