The moderation of student work such as coursework, practical outputs and examination scripts, ensures the use of agreed marking criteria, comparability and equity of standards and consistency and fairness of marking. Read the Policy for the verification of assessment and standardisation and moderation of marking for more details.
When reviewing a sample of student work, the role of the moderator is to check that first marking has been carried out correctly, that mark schemes have been properly applied, and that the total mark is arithmetically correct for a sample of student work.
Second marking is where a second mark is allocated to a piece of work by a second internal marker. This is a thorough second marking of student work and may be carried out blind (where the second marker does not have access to the marks and comments of the first marker) or sighted (where the second marker can view the marks and comments of the first marker).Second marking results in a single, agreed mark.
External moderation is a check / audit of a sample of marked work by an appointed external examiner.
University staff are in the position of assessing the work of students that they have taught, and it is vital that the marking of student work is not influenced by unconscious bias. There are procedures in place to guard against this, both in the design of assessments, and in the marking process:
- Assessment design will promote inclusive, accessible and equitable practices that prepare learners for assessment; this is a key feature of the Hallam Model inclusive curriculum prompts.
- The University will ensure fair assessment outcomes for students through rigorous standardisation and moderation processes.
