“I enjoy using Cadmus because it is simple and intuitive, yet powerful. The platform provides excellent moderation and feedback tools that I can instantly share with students during live quizzing, which really enhances engagement and learning."

For Program Coordinator Stephen Bested at The University of Notre Dame Australia, designing assessment that genuinely supported learning in a complex, content-heavy postgraduate course was both essential and challenging.

Teaching into the Postgraduate Health and Medical Sciences program within the School of Medicine, Stephen coordinates a course built around a combined and systemic study of human organ systems across the lifecycle. The subject brings together anatomy, physiology, and applied problem solving, requiring students to move beyond memorisation and demonstrate how structure and function interrelate across the human body.

Delivered through an online team-based learning model, the course combines flipped lectures, online quizzes and activities, group discussion and problem-solving.

Aligning assessment with learning

The learning outcomes for the course emphasise applied understanding and collaboration. Students are expected to explain the structure and function of major human body systems, apply this knowledge to normal physiological processes such as movement and homeostasis, recognise disruptions that may lead to disease, and work in teams to discuss cases and present solutions.

With 41 enrolled students and 14 assessment items across the semester, assessment needed to be frequent, structured, and purposeful — reinforcing learning without becoming overwhelming for either students or staff.

Stephen adopted Cadmus to support this approach, using assessment as a way to drive engagement, reasoning, and teamwork, rather than simply measure performance at the end of semester.

Weekly team-based assessment in practice

A central component of the course were weekly iRAT (individual readiness assurance test) and tRAT (team readiness assurance test) – a formative, closed-book assessment designed to promote discussion and shared reasoning.

Each week, students first attempted questions individually before coming together in teams to discuss each question and agree on a single collective answer. Every student then submitted this team answer individually. With no negative marking, the focus shifted from penalty and risk to confidence, dialogue, and learning through discussion.

This structure allowed students to test their understanding regularly while benefiting from peer perspectives, reinforcing both content knowledge and collaborative problem-solving skills.

Cadmus supported the technical demands of the course by enabling students to work through complex interpretation, calculation, and evaluation tasks, including the ability to insert and edit LaTeX-formatted equations directly in their responses.

As a result of the instant feedback Cadmus provides to markers, Stephen is able to copy and paste responses directly into live sessions, showing how students answered each individual question.

Supporting clarity through lab reports

Lab reports were also delivered through Cadmus using a single, all-in-one assessment workspace. Instructions, resources, task tracking, and submission were brought together in one place, helping students stay oriented across the semester and reducing administrative friction.

For a course with multiple assessment touchpoints, this consistency played an important role in supporting student confidence and focus.

Outcomes for students

Across the semester, the assessment design supported strong engagement and outcomes:

• 86% average submission rate for summative assessments
• 55% average submission rate for formative tasks
• 93% average pass rate
• 91.6% positive student experience

These results reflected a model that balanced rigour with support, encouraging students to engage regularly with challenging material while working collaboratively.

Reflecting on impact

For Stephen, the value of using Cadmus lay in its ability to support a coherent, assessment-led learning experience without requiring a complete redesign of the course.

By embedding team-based assessment throughout the semester, the course reinforced applied understanding of anatomy and physiology, supported peer learning, and maintained strong student outcomes in a demanding postgraduate context.

Ultimately, Cadmus enabled assessment to act as a driver of learning, not just a measure of it — aligning teaching philosophy, learning outcomes, and student experience in a scalable and sustainable way.