Welcome to the REAL Assessor Newsletter

Kia ora koutou assessor whānau,

It’s August already – what a year 2020 has been! Many of you provided us feedback in a recent survey around the services the Moderation and Assessment Practices (MAP) team provides. We thank you for the time taken to give us this feedback, we’ve learned a lot more about what your needs are and how we can better support you.

To that end we are:

Re-working Assessor Hubs to be led by the MAP team and have a focus on assessor PD and good practice, and these will be paired up with peer-moderation workshops for a double whammy!
Reviewing our newsletter content to add more content related to good practice. There will be features from representatives across the MAP team in each edition.
Working on a resource kete for assessors that will provide reference material and support for good practice.

49% of active assessors have got their moderation samples into us so far this year. Thank you for your proactive action! If you haven’t submitted your samples already, read this month’s newsletter to check out your options.

The moderation team has been a body short since March, but that will change later this month with a new pair of hands on deck. We’re aware that turnaround times for moderation have blown out and we’re doing what we can to get these back on track!

Keep up the awesome mahi, your efforts are so greatly appreciated by the MAP team, Careerforce, and your own trainees.

With thanks,
Moderation and Assessment Practice Team

Assessor Hubs will now be run by your local Learning Engagement Advisors. As part of your annual renewal registration, you are required to attend professional development and moderation annually. The Assessor Hubs sessions are an opportunity for continuous professional development and refresher training around aspects of assessing in the workplace.

Please keep an eye out for dates of Assessor Hubs in your area. These are being posted on our website here for you to register. We encourage you to attend a Assessor Hub before the end of the year.

Please remember when completing an assessment, assessors must:

Mark submitted assessments within ten working days of the trainee handing them in and give feedback within 5 working days of completing assessment of their work.
Give feedback to the trainee before doing anything else;
After this, complete the assessment results page, i.e. sign-off and date the result;
Then enter the results in iportal (if this is not an Aka Toi assessment) within 5 days of the date on the assessment results page.
Store securely every assessment from a one-year programme for 12 months, either hard copy or a scanned version (NZQA requirements). If the programme is greater than 12 months, assessments must be stored for 24 months (NZQA requirements).

We would also like to remind you of our policy in regards to submission of results.

Assessment results are to be reported within five working days of the date of assessment. This will ensure that trainees are active and will not have their Training Agreements terminated due to inactivity. Failure to report results in a timely way is an infringement of trainees’ rights and it has a financial implication for some. This reporting requirement is audited by the Tertiary Education Commission and is one that we will discuss with individual assessors who are not meeting this requirement.

All Careerforce Assessors are required to go through an annual registration review. Part of this review is to ensure that each assessor successfully participates in annual moderation. Careerforce offers two options for meeting this requirement.

Assessor Hubs / Peer Moderation Workshops
The workshop schedule for 2020 is listed on our website (here). This schedule will be updated as workshops are added throughout the year.

Post or Email Moderation
Please either email your moderation samples to moderation@careerforce.org.nz or post to:

Careerforce

Level 1

189 Willis Street

Wellington 6140

Attn: National Moderators

Please complete and submit the Moderation Cover Sheet (located here) along with your samples.

If you are submitting Aka Toi assessments for moderation, please:

Make sure that the assessment is completed with all attachments and evidence uploaded.
Enter “Aka Toi Moderation” in the subject line of an email.
Provide Trainee name/s and unit standard numbers/module names in the text of the email.
Give your full name, e.g. John Smith (not just John) and your assessor number.
Send to moderation@careerforce.org.nz.

We request that you provide your moderation samples for 2020 no later than 31 October if possible.

If assessors use the “feedback sandwich” they will never just write 'well done'.

Commend – tell the trainee about something they have done well and why and how it was done well. This will enable them to repeat the good work in another context/assessment
Recommend – what areas the trainee can improve upon. How would they go about gaining that extra learning?
Commend – finish with a really positive statement (here add “well done”) - "I really look forward to seeing you put your new learning into practice, well done!"

Sometimes there is no recommendation to be had. In these instances, the concept of “Extend” might be suitable - extend the learner. e.g. It was really interesting what you have said about X – have you thought about Y? Perhaps also recommend a reading to extend their knowledge.