Page 43 - EVALUATION ENGLISH

Evaluation Reforms

7. Moderation

Moderation of assessment is an organized procedure which ensures use of valid assessment
material and consistent application of criteria, to provide fair academic judgment and reliable
outcome in the form of marks or grades. It assures appropriate designing and implementation
of assessment activities along with generation of valid and reliable results.
Integration of moderation process with assessment system is imperative for the development of
academic quality in higher educational institutions as :

• It addresses any difference in individual judgments of different evaluators.
• It ensures that all achievements in the form of marks and grades across courses reflect
achievement of same level of standard.
• It is also carried out to develop a common understanding of the standards and criteria
and to recognize performance which demonstrates that standard or fulfils that criteria.

Moderation may be conducted in case there are large number of fail grades or high grades, or
when large numbers of students who have received the same grade or clustering of students on
letter grades, or when there are discrepancies between grades allocated to individual students
in different courses, or to find out the difficulty level of the question paper or whether the
assessments modes used cover the entire syllabus or not.
Applicability - Moderation should be made applicable to both external and internal modes of
assessment. All programs and courses should indicate, as part of their statements on assessment,
arrangements for the moderation of assessed work. This can be done through formulation
of a moderation policy and implemented across all programs and courses of instruction and
delivery, i.e. even those programs delivered via distance or online mode. The time frame for the
moderation should be linked withthe time frame for assessment.

In the event a moderation is triggered, an evaluation should begin with a discussion on the
following (though not exhaustive) lines:
a. What are the rubrics used for each of the different types of assessment in the course? Is a
standardized/ prescribed rubric used or has the instructor developed his/ her own rubric.
If the instructor is using a personally framed rubric, or if there is no identified rubric, then
how does the assessment map to learning outcomes?

b. The difficulty level of the questions included in the assessments, i.e., is the difficulty level
on the extremes, very easy or very hard.
c. The manner of awarding marks, i.e., has the correction been at the extremes, liberal or tough.

Each department should establish a committee and designate roles and responsibilities at
different levels for smooth working of the moderation process. In order to maintain neutrality, it
should be ensured that moderator should not be the assessor. Staff members should be trained
professionally in assessment techniques and moderation procedures. All assessment material
produced by learner including examination sheets, assignments, project reports, research reports
etc. should be examined.
Higher educational institutions should be encouraged to make the moderation process online. In this
system, assessment plans, moderation plans, assessment tools, samples of which may be submitted
online. Moderation reports should be generated online so that progress can be tracked.
The moderation should not be restricted to just assessment but also include moderation of
content and assessment design.

Evaluation Reforms in Higher Educational Institutions 41