In 2021, Charles Sturt completed work on a major revision to the Assessment Policy. This simplified, clarified, and combined multiple existing policies into one. An important part of this was the assessment of student academic progress. The new policy (and associated procedures) gathers all coursework students under the same set of rules for the first time in many years.
Existing processes were reviewed for identifying and reporting student academic progress. Our combination of Banner reports, complex spreadsheets and Message Centre (eBox) were no longer capable of supporting the new policy and Charles Sturt’s commitment to improving our record keeping practices.
MAST (Monitoring and Support Tool) is a bespoke application. It replaces multiple Banner reports, spreadsheets and manual processes associated with identifying, notifying, and recording outcomes of academic progress and maximum duration reporting. MAST consolidates this monitoring to a single view. This explains the student’s current and historic academic standing, the decisions and events which have contributed to their overall standing.
MAST improves identification of students who have not met progress rules with a sophisticated algorithm applying multiple layers of rules. It significantly reduces the amount of manual review required (improving both accuracy and efficiency), and enables staff to quickly determine a student’s current status in a variety of settings across the university. MAST supports Charles Sturt’s obligations to TEQSA regarding record keeping and enables us to easily demonstrate compliance.
MAST V2 launched in July 2021, with subsequent enhancements released each month. The project will conclude early November 2021.
If you would like more information about this project or the MAST system, please contact Kellie Dowling – Manager, Partners, Student Administration Division