Consistently Achieving


Fri 24 Jun 2016

Blog Author
Rachel Burnham
Associate Tutor

Last week, myself and the rest of the MOL Certificate in Learning & Development Practice (CLDP) tutor team, met with staff from the MOL Quality Team in one of our regular standardisation meetings. Which probably doesn’t sound too exciting, except that this is one of the ways that we ensure that MOL’s courses are always of an exceptionally high standard.

In this meeting, we focus on the way that we are assessing and providing feedback on the many assessments that make up the CLDP programme. The aim of this is to ensure that students are assessed fairly & consistently, no matter who their tutor is across the country. This process also helps us as a team to continuously raise the quality & effectiveness of our learning methods & materials. Similar processes are in place for other CIPD programmes provided by MOL.

During the meeting we reviewed a number of examples of a range of actual assessments, that had previously been assessed by tutors. We read through each assessment individually and then discussed how each one compares to the assessment criteria – this gives tutors the opportunity to share their decision-making process and for us to discuss any differences that emerge. We then compared our discussion, with the actual feedback and grade provided to the student. It is helpful to look again at the feedback given to the student and consider whether this is as clear & useful as it could be.

This whole process enables tutors to learn from each other and to adjust their approach so that a common understanding of individual assessments & assessment practice is maintained.  In addition, this process provides an opportunity for tutors to identify any areas of confusion or ambiguity experienced by students in the wording of assessments so that we can clarify these. We also identify topics where we could further improve the learning materials - in this instance we suggested some additional case study examples to illustrate a point that was proving tricky for some students in one of the assessments.

On this occasion, we also had a further assessment, which one of the tutors had asked to be brought to the meeting, as it had been a particularly tricky one to assess and she wanted the opportunity to review it with colleagues.

I certainly find this a valuable process and learning experience. It helps to keep me on my toes when marking and challenges me to ensure that I am providing feedback that is clear & practical for the students I am working with.