The Astronomy Diagnostic Test (ADT) is a diagnostic survey for undergraduate, non-science majors taking their first astronomy course. It was developed by the multi-institutional Collaboration for Astronomy Education Research (CAER) in the USA. The primary content of the ADT consists of 21 questions, with 12 extra questions to collect demographic information. It has been carefully validated for the US college target group (see Hufnagel et al., PASA, 2000, 17, 152-155).

The Southern Hemisphere Edition of the ADT has a small number of very minor changes to words and images of the primary content of ADT Version 2.0 to permit its use in the southern hemisphere, in particular Australia. The demographic questions have also been altered to match Australian circumstances. The test has not yet been formally validated for the somewhat different target group typical of Australian universities.

The Southern Hemisphere Edition of the ADT has been used in the PHYS 1500 Astronomy introductory astronomy unit at the University of Sydney since 2000 as both a pre- and a post-course quiz.

We would like to expand its use in Australia and formally validate the test in the Australian context. The test is available to any university staff to use with their own classes, with some agreed guidelines. In particular, the test is not to be altered in any way, questions are not to be removed and placed on course quizzes or exams, and the test items are not to be distributed to students lest the items find their way into the students 'collective knowledge'. In exchange we ask that you submit results to John O'Byrne (j.obyrne@physics.usyd.edu.au) at the University of Sydney for collation by the Sydney University Physics Education research (SUPER) group.

The Southern Hemisphere Edition of the ADT is available in Austrlia in several forms - on paper as a Word file (kindly produced by Susan Feteris of Monash University), as a web page using html forms, or as a WebMCQ Quiz. Please discuss the best way to use the ADT with John O'Byrne (j.obyrne@physics.usyd.edu.au).