Ideas for standardisation activities

 As an IQA you are responsible for the running of regular standardisation meetings. These will provide consistency across the team of assessors and ensure fairness and validity when making assessment decisions. It is a good idea to put an annual plan in place so all assessors can put the dates in their diaries and ensure they are able to attend. An agenda should be issued in advance and these meetings should be documented with minutes.

It can sometimes be difficult to come up with innovative ideas and different activities to carry out with the team so here are some suggestions:

1. Select a ‘problem’ unit from a qualification and ask each assessor to bring one student’s completed unit or evidence that they have assessed to the meeting. These can be swapped across the team for others to assess and see if they make the same assessment decisions.
2. Watch a video of an activity taking place and get the assessors to record this on an observation record and then assess it into a specific unit.
3. Create a bank of assessment resources to assist learner – these can be some set knowledge questions, a multiple-choice question paper or guidance on how to approach a specific unit.
4. Look at a specific unit and discuss suggestions as to how the assessors can support a student when completing this unit. It may lead to some guidance documents being produced.
5. Watch a video of an assessment taking place with a student and an assessor and ask the team to complete an observation record to give feedback to the assessor on what went well and where they need to improve.
6. Select a specific assessment method such as a Witness Testimony and ask the assessors to bring examples to the meeting that can be discussed as good practice.
7. IQA to write several mock observation records and the team to decide which one shows good practice and which ones need to be improved
8. Carry out a role play activity where the team can observe each other – one is the student and one is the assessor – and they can complete an observation and give the person feedback.
9. Carry out an evaluation of a programme – look at it from start to finish and identify what has gone well and which areas need to be improved before the programme runs again.