University of Tasmania, Australia

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Outcomes of the Moderation process

UTAS Home › Faculty of Education › Faculty of Education › Learning and teaching › Policies and procedures › Moderation guidelines  › Outcomes of the Moderation process

Schools need to ensure that mechanisms of moderation (at both the pre-assessment and postassessment stage) are in place to ensure that assessment and grading are valid and reliable and that if unacceptable variation in assessment approaches and outcomes are identified, including distribution anomalies, there are appropriate mechanisms for resolving these differences (as per the above).

In cases where differences remain unresolved in the moderation of marking:

  1. When the moderator’s mark3 indicates a different grading outcome (rank order or distribution of grades etc.), then the marker and moderator should review assessment criteria and standards and their interpretation of them so that any divergence of understanding or interpretation can be resolved, followed by a further re-marking and moderation if appropriate.

  2. If interpretation is not an issue, but:

    1. a difference in marking remains, or
    2. an identified divergence remains unresolved, orc. if re-marking and further moderation does not resolve inconsistencies between marker and moderator
    the matter should be referred to the course coordinator who is then responsible for investigating the matter and determining a course of action, which might include:

    1. arranging for a second moderator to sample student work
    2. arranging a second marker to mark all students’ work
    3. marking the assignment artefacts themselves and recommending these marks to the assessment committee.

Details of the pre-assessment and post-assessment moderation processes undertaken and outcomes achieved within each unit will be reported by the Unit Coordinator as part of the normal QA requirements of the Faculty. These reports will be included in the unit portfolio for each unit every semester it is delivered. Similarly, Course coordinators will provide such a summary for the course as a whole in their course portfolios and Annual Course Reports each year.

 

 

 


3 The moderator would normally be the unit coordinator. If there is only one assessor in a unit, then an appropriate
member of staff from elsewhere in the Faculty would act as moderator