Case study
Assessment:
Managing the Diplomas
A lead assessor from a college introducing the Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment explains
how to manage the internal assessment requirements of the qualification
his is the story of how the
T
CiEA (Chartered institute of
Educational Assessors) Lead and
Domain Assessor training and
support was used to help the construction
team at one college, make sense of, and
introduce, a new Diploma qualification.
The Diploma in Construction and the Built
Environment was introduced to replace a
well established full-time construction course
and this presented the team with a series of
challenges specifically related to assessment.
First, previous external verifier reports
highlighted that assessment theory and
practice needed development. The college
quality department had previously been
involved within the context of internal
verification but not the wider assessment
process. This suggested that a more rigorous
assessment process was needed and that the
CiEA could help develop this.
second, a number of staff changes,
including the introduction of newly qualified
and presently qualifying staff, had diminished
the experience base of the team. To this
extent, there was a need to bring the team the assessment process must rest on a full to put assessment at the centre of the learning
together to deal with the Diploma assessment and clear understanding of the assessment process.
challenges and also improve assessment requirements and especially the change in
practice on a “cross-curricular” level within the summative requirements within their Conducting and quality assuring
the department. curriculum before assessment tasks are fully assessments
Third, although the quality of teaching designed. The major change in assessment The next phase of the process considered
and learning for the department was methodology was identified as a shift from how assessments were to be conducted and
validated as “good”, developing the rigour coursework/portfolio evidence towards testing how to ensure rigour within the assessment
of assessment could also contribute towards and controlled assessment. process. Previous external verifier reports were
the team achieving the objective of being an This needed to be clearly understood before evaluated and this helped to plan the next
“outstanding” curriculum area in the future. assessment could be designed and also as a session. The shift in assessment methodology
basis for the team working together. towards controlled testing meant that
Preparing for assessments A key issue to emerge from this initial although staff did have an understanding
At the start of the academic year, the session was the importance of putting of the criteria, the team’s ability to turn this
construction team met to discuss the main assessment at the heart of the planning process into valid assessment tasks needed support at
assessment issues emerging from the change in and to get this right before developing a this point. The team was effective at marking
qualification. The team discussed and started scheme of learning based on content. and making judgements, but needed tighter
with the basic changes that staff could detect A further session on designing and planning assessment planning, especially as some units
in the new Diploma assessment methodology. assessments was held with the team to more were common to several elements within the
The staff agreed that the starting point for fully understand the new Diploma but also department and so needed to be planned as
22 Delivering Diplomas • Volume 2 No 1 Spring 2010
22-23 Case study .indd 2 5/3/10 11:47:52
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52