Guidance for Completing Assessment Verification and Moderation

Verification of assignment briefs and examination papers, and moderation of assessed student work are part of the University’s module quality assurance cycle. As well as assuring quality and standards, these processes also facilitate continuous improvement of the University's academic provision.

Assessment verification and moderation are intrinsic to demonstrating the rigour and credibility of our awards. They provide assurance that standards are secure and that assessment criteria have been applied appropriately, reflecting the shared understanding of the markers.

Assessment Verification

External Examiners are required to carry out external verification of assessment briefs and examination papers. This applies to all taught modules at Level 5 or above, although the Programme Leader may request that you review taught modules at Level 3 and/or Level 4. Likewise, you are able to request to look at the assessment for these modules, should you wish.

Assessment briefs and examination papers are to undergo verification prior to the start of the module, and to publication to students. It is to take place at least once during each academic year, ideally at the first instance of a module and is to be repeated if substantive changes to assessments are made.

The Module/Programme Leader should liaise with you as to the timing of assessment verification. They will provide you with the proposed assessment brief(s) and examination paper(s), along with an Assessment Verification form that has been partially completed by the Module Leader and Internal Verifier. You are to complete Part B of the assessment verification form and to return this to the Module/Programme Leader.

As part of this process, you are able to identify any enhancement action that may be required to ensure that assessments are meeting the OfS requirement that the provider must ensure that:

1. students are assessed effectively
2. each assessment is valid and reliable

Moderation of Assessed Student Work

Moderation of assessed student work is a process separate from marking and provides assurance that assessment criteria have been applied appropriately; programme and module learning outcomes are met; knowledge, skills and behaviours (for apprenticeships) are met. It reflects the shared understanding of the markers.

Moderation can, where appropriate, enable comparability of outcomes across academic subjects, for instance in recognising that students may be studying more than one subject or that the same module is delivered in more than one location. Moderation focuses on the marks awarded to the full set of assessed work for an assessment or module, in the context of University Regulations, FHEQ and the academic standards for the award. It is therefore separate from the question of how differences in marks between two or more markers are resolved and is not about making changes to an individual student's marks. Moderation does not entail a second allocation of marks (second marking), for example with reference to Independent Studies.

External Moderation is required for all taught modules at Level 5 or above, or at the External Examiner’s/Programme Leader’s request.

As an External Examiner, you can expect to be provided with a sample of assessed student work. This is to be the same sample that was used for Internal Moderation. You will be able to access this sample, along with the respective Moderation Form, via the module’s External Examiner folder on the University’s VLE (Blackboard/Blackboard Ultra). The moderation form will provide you with details of the assessed student work for moderation and will have been partially completed by the Module Leader and Internal Moderator. You are to complete Part D of the moderation form.

As part of this process you are able to provide details of any enhancement action required and to provide any additional feedback to the relevant Assessment Board.

COMING SOON - Quality Monitoring & Evaluation Platform (QMEP)

Digitisation of processes associated with Continual Monitoring is due to go live for the start of the 2024-25 Academic Year.

The new Quality Monitoring & Evaluation Platform (QMEP) is an online application that simplifies and streamlines our essential Continual Monitoring processes, especially for you as External Examiners and your involvement with Assessment Verification and Moderation of Assessed Student Work.  It will bring a host of benefits to the University, with those that particularly apply to you in your role being:

• Access to these processes on one online platform – which will allow you to complete your part in the QMEP app too!
• Automated flows which provide email notifications and reminders – these contain a link which, when selected, will take you directly to the work that you need to do in QMEP.
• Documents such as Assessment briefs and exam papers will be provided to you as attachments within QMEP – and there is the ability to see and leave comments for others in the process flow to view and respond to.

This web page will be used to provide you with information and guidance as it becomes available over the next few months.