Moderation - an overview
At Curtin, moderation is a quality assurance process directed at ensuring that assessments are marked with accuracy, consistency and fairness. Moderation can be effected through several methods and is part of the Quality Assessment Cycle. It includes the entire assessment event, including the design and post-event analysis of the fitness of the assessment of student learning. For more information about moderation, see Teaching & Learning Book Chapter 4 [PDF 164kb]
Moderation is required for every assessment which involves a degree of subjectivity. (Objective testing such as multiple choice assessment also needs moderation, but this is done in a slightly different way. This usually involves a review of the questions prior to their use, combined with a post-hoc analysis of student results.)
In general, moderation is likely to work best when it is based on the following principles:
- Assessments are designed so that they are clearly linked to the intended learning outcomes;
- Pre-marking meetings or other activities are undertaken to ensure that assessors are able to clarify their understanding of the assessment criteria;
- Assessment criteria are clearly communicated to students, both in the pre-assessment phase and also when providing feedback; and
- Assessments are subject to regular review: their frequency, style and the relative success rate of students are appraised as a regular part of the improvement cycle.
The process of moderation can include the adjustment of student marks, but always based on the re-assessment of student work. Any adjustments to student marks must occur before the script or the marks have been communicated to the student. (At Curtin, scaling refers to the adjustment of student scores based on statistical analysis alone, and without reference to the quality of student scripts, and after work has already been returned to students. Scaling in this sense is unacceptable at Curtin.)
For more information about the moderation policy at Curtin, see section 3 of the Assessment Manual Section 3 [LINK]
