NZQA Rules require all tertiary education organisations (TEOs) to have an effective system for moderating assessment materials and decisions:
Programme Approval, Recognition and Accreditation Rules
Find more information in the Guidelines for programme approval and accreditation
This page gives TEOs information on how to develop and manage an effective system for internal moderation.
The features of effective internal moderation
An effective internal moderation system:
- makes sure that you moderate and approve all assessment materials before you use them with learners
- verifies that assessor decisions are fair, valid, and consistent before you give learners their results
- provides feedback to assessors, assessment writers, and programme developers on the quality and effectiveness of assessment materials
- is flexible and accommodates a variety of learning outcomes, and assessment contexts (for example, onsite moderation for practical outcomes)
- clearly defines the role of everyone involved
- informs training and ongoing opportunities for professional development
- gives participants enough time to complete their moderation activities
- adds value to the participants, learners and external stakeholders
- triggers regular reviews, updates to assessments, and improvements to assessment practice
- contributes to the continuous improvement of the programme and its relevance to the end-user (for example, a future employer).
On this page
Pre-assessment moderation
Your TEO needs to moderate all newly developed assessment materials before you use them with learners.
You also need to moderate assessment materials every time you change or update them.
Assessment materials include tasks and marking guidance.
Post-assessment moderation
We recommend that you do post-assessment moderation for each summative assessment in a programme.
Randomly select at least three learner samples:
- from a range of achieved marks or grades
- from each delivery site.
Creating your own templates for internal moderation
We do not have standard templates for pre- and post-assessment moderation.
TEOs can design their own templates to fit their own processes for internal moderation. Use the guidance below.
What to focus on for pre-assessment moderation
Pre-assessment moderation needs to focus on if:
- assessment materials give learners opportunities to show they achieved/met all the requirements of the learning outcomes
- assessment materials reflect the required level of the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF)
- assessment methods are suitable for the learning outcomes (for example, an ‘apply’ outcome needs a practical task)
- marking schedules and/or model answers are detailed enough, help markers be consistent and clearly state the minimum evidence that learners need to present to achieve each learning outcome.
What to focus on for post-assessment moderation
Post-assessment moderation needs to focus on if:
- there is sufficient evidence of learners meeting the requirements of all the learning outcomes
- assessor decisions are accurate and reflect the quality of learner responses
- learner work is at the required NZQCF level, and fulfils the assessment tasks and evidence requirements
- learner responses are authentic and comply with the relevant academic integrity requirements.
- there is enough learner evidence for the practical tasks.
Who conducts internal moderation
People doing internal moderation need to have the appropriate knowledge:
- expertise in the subject matter
- experience in assessment and moderation.
This might be:
- teaching staff
- programme leader
- dean
- academic manager
- contract moderators.
It is important that staff who marked the assessments do not moderate their own assessment decisions.
Moderating practical assessments
We recommend that the moderator observes the practical assessment as it is happening.
If this is not practical, the moderator can use videos of the assessment or detailed observation checklists completed by an assessor or verifier as evidence for moderation.
Try using a detailed checklist
A detailed checklist is especially useful if a video recording is not an appropriate way to collect learner evidence.
For example, assessors can verify practical assessments for student placements in aged residential care facilities using detailed checklists.
In these checklists, there should be a room for:
- detailed assessor comments, specific to the learner
- descriptions of what the learner said or did as supplementary evidence that the learner met the performance criteria
- how the learner has achieved the learning outcome(s).