Involvement in assessment

At the start of the academic year, the engineering team meets to decide its assessment strategy. The internal verifier reminds everyone of their obligations to the assessment policy and procedures within the institution, their roles and tasks and their combined goals. Aisha has been asked to design a new assessment for the engineering specification and to make it appropriate to ways of working in industry. She will apply the principles of assessment to the tasks she has in mind and check that these are fit not only for her own learners, but also for the learners of her team members. She checks the requirement of the specification and designs an appropriate set of tasks, ensuring that these are valid. She will also identify appropriate opportunities for these tasks to be carried out, both for her own learners and for the rest of the team. She will have this assessment eventually signed off by her line manager, the internal verifier. She will explain the assessment criteria and objectives to the learners, as well as explaining to learners the appeals procedures that they can instigate.

Aisha has been asked to lead the rest of the team through the assessment tasks as part of her continuing professional development. She demonstrates her understanding of the criteria and ensures that the rest of the team also understands how to apply the criteria. Aisha will assess a quota of her learners' work in accordance with the assessment criteria agreed by the team. Next, she will standardise her own work and offer a quota of the assessments to the internal verifier for moderation. Once this has been agreed by the internal verifier, she will record the details of the assessments and collate all the results, checking that the assessment has been made fairly based on the outputs and the learners for whom she is responsible. She then feeds back to the learners using the faculty's procedures and proformas.

Aisha now evaluates the evidence from her own learners. She analyses the data carefully, checking for trends or any unsuspected outcomes. She uses this data to add to the team's evidence of reliability and validity of the assessment. At the next team meeting, where the feedback relating to the assessment is given, she develops an action plan to improve the quality of the assessment, if needed. Using the evidence collated across the team, she will develop learning goals for her group of learners and suggest ways they can improve their performances and achievement. The wealth of data enables the other members of the team to manage their own development needs. She is now also in a position to feed back to her internal verifier on the trends in the evidence relating to the assessment. She can also discuss this with the external verifier and any employers who may have questions about the nature of the assessment.

Aisha can use the feedback to determine her learning goals, as well as those of her learners. She can plan a series of learning outcomes to improve her performance. She shares her action plan with the internal verifier, who may add to the list of goals. Aisha will also be in a strong position to evaluate the impact of further training because the criteria have been agreed with her internal verifier and the objectives of the training are set and based on evidence.

Not only has this process contributed to Aisha's personal development, it will have contributed to team goals that were discussed at the start of the academic year. In developing the assessment and working closely with other team members on the processes, she will have contributed to the setting and achievement of goals for the entire team. The practices that she has put in place, discussed with other members of the team and amended in the light of their comments will have allowed her to share good practice and to fulfil her commitments to the rest of the team. The process will also have encouraged her to support others through the changes brought about by this new form of assessment.

Development and support opportunities

• Member Area
• Termly magazine, Make the Grade
• Events & networking opportunities
• Optional Professional Indemnity (PII)

CIEA recognition for attainments

Associate status .

CPD opportunities

• MA in Educational Assessment
• CIEA Professional Framework (formative and summative versions)
• Insights (audio visual online presentations)
• Skills Gap Analysis Tool
• Assessor Compendia (formative and summative versions)
• Toolkit for Assessors
• CIEA Research Database
• Conferences and events
• Training & qualifications
• CIEA Assessment Policy

Read more about CIEA member benefits .

Goal: Maintain Member status and consider applying for CEA status.