Monitoring and Moderation Policy

PURPOSE

This policy details the internal monitoring and external moderation of grades undertaken by Leaders Institute (LI) to ensure high quality, equitable, and rigorous academic standards and integrity of courses.

SCOPE

All courses

PRINCIPLES

LI ensures that:

• assessment design and practices are appropriate to the relevant Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level and field of education to ensure academic standards are maintained;

• assessment tasks are graded against a marking rubric that is consistent with the learning outcomes and assessment criteria to ensure equity of student experience regardless of delivery site or mode;

• internal monitoring of grades for each unit is undertaken in a timely manner to ensure consistency in assessment contributing to a student's final grade in a unit;

• external moderation of grades assists academic staff to make assessment judgements that are valid, reliable, consistent, and actively improve learning and teaching;

• all external moderation documentation remains confidential, assessments, are deidentified, and documents are destroyed after the moderation is complete.

Internal Monitoring

Internal monitoring is an academic quality assurance process that is integral to maintaining LI's academic standards and integrity of awards. Grades of student assessment are awarded by academic staff and differentiated in accordance with the Student Assessment and Workload Policy. Internal monitoring includes, but is not limited to:

• cross checking grades across delivery sites and modes;

• using one marker for all exam papers to ensure consistency;

• peer review of marking for junior academic staff.

Examiners Committee reviews student grades:

• to ensure their validity, reliability, and consistency across delivery sites and modes;

• across different units to ensure no anomalies in student results;

• to identify students whose academic progress is at risk and report to Academic Board on support for 'at risk' students, including those from identified subgroups as defined in the Diversity and Equity Policy.

  
  
  
  

External Moderation

External moderation of grades is used to ensure that grade allocations to students are consistent, fair, and reliable. The process ensures comparability in quality between other higher education institutes teaching comparable courses. Learning and Teaching Committee is responsible for overseeing the external moderation of grades process, determining each discipline to be moderated on a rotational basis. Each discipline being moderated will include a reasonable sample of units taught that semester within that discipline, across LI's delivery sites and modes. External moderation feedback is also considered as part of course and unit reviews.

PROCEDURES

Internal Monitoring of Grades Procedure

The following process occurs during and after each teaching period:

Monitoring During Teaching Period

Unit Coordinators ensure consistency of Unit Profiles and Marking Grids across all units in the Learning Management System. Any changes to marking grids must be uniform across all delivery sites and modes and approved by the Unit Coordinator. Throughout the semester, the Unit Coordinator cross checks graded formative assessments to ensure consistency. As a mentoring exercise, Unit Coordinators undertake peer reviews of all the student feedback and assessment grading of Lecturers in their first semester of teaching.

Monitoring at the End of Teaching Period

At the end of each teaching period, Lecturers submit final grades to the relevant Unit Coordinator who cross checks all grades before submission to the relevant Program Director. Each Program Director consults with Unit Coordinators to ensure all grades are equitable and verified across all delivery sites and modes. Any missing grades are accompanied by an explanatory note indicating reasons for the gap and a due date for completion. Program Directors table to Examiners Committee all grades awarded to ensure their validity and reliability.

As noted in the Student Assessment and Workload Policy, Examiners Committee evaluates all grades awarded in the teaching period to ensure consistency of distributions of marks both within and between units. The monitoring includes consideration of the distribution of grades within each unit and comparison across delivery sites and modes for the same units. The monitoring of grades process notes any students needing to be placed on intervention or excluded from a course in line with the Progression and Exclusion Policy.

Examiners Committee reports any matters of concern to Learning and Teaching Committee and proposes changes to improve outcomes in assessment practice and equity, learning and teaching, student services and support across delivery sites and modes. This includes improving outcomes for 'at risk' students and those from identified subgroups. Following the internal monitoring of grades, the Chair of Examiners Committee may authorise the official dissemination of grades to students by the date published in the Annual Academic Calendar. The Registrar is responsible for the release of grades.

External Moderation of Grades Procedure

Learning and Teaching Committee appoints an external expert in the relevant discipline to undertake an external moderation of sample graded assessments to report on standards, fairness, and consistency of marking according to Australian higher education benchmarks. This external moderation may be conducted individually or through an inter-institutional moderation agreement. The external expert is provided with:

• Unit Profile with assessment expectations and marking rubrics;

• selection of deidentified, graded assessments, such as Distinction, Pass, and Fail grades;

• External Moderation of Grades Report template to complete.

The External Moderation Report informs subsequent assessment practices to ensure a continuous cycle of review and improvement. It does not alter the internal grading process conducted each semester and the resultant distribution of grades. The External Moderator signs a confidentiality agreement which includes disposing of material securely at the end of the exercise.

Once the External Moderation Report has been received, it is forwarded to the appropriate Unit Coordinator for review and response to Learning and Teaching Committee. Learning and Teaching Committee is responsible to ensure that any required changes or improvements are actioned, including professional development for Lecturers if needed. External Moderation Reports and Unit Coordinator responses are tabled to Academic Board by the Chair of Learning and Teaching Committee.