There is significant focus upon protecting the value of UK degrees in the Higher Education sector currently (Universities UK, 2020; QAA, 2022).  Research has shown repeatedly, that under blind conditions judgements of the same piece of work by different assessors varies considerably (Bloxham, 2009).  The social constructed and tacit nature of academic standards is at the heart of this variation.  Social moderation and calibration is an approach that brings academics together to jointly discuss the academic standards they hold by applying them to concrete exemplars of student work. This process has considerable potential for reducing the variability in academic standards.

This workshop will explore these ideas in more detail and model an approach to calibration of academic standards.  You will review and make judgements on student performances during the workshop and then participate in a dialogic process of peer review with other participants in order to understand different points of interpretation.  This will foreground some of the limitations of existing tools claiming to support consistent standards and the challenges of undertaking calibration activities.  The workshop will provide a model for how you can work with programme, subject or departmental teams to support the development of greater shared standards in a discipline.

References

Bloxham, S. (2009) Marking and moderation in the UK: false assumptions and wasted resources. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34:2, 209-220,

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2022).  Degree Classification: A Literature Review. Unpacking the literature on degree classifications in UK higher education (qaa.ac.uk)

Universities UK (2020). Protecting the value of UK degrees: Reviewing progress one year on from the statement of intent. summary-protecting-the-value-degrees-progress-review.pdf (universitiesuk.ac.uk)

This event will be held in-person in the Student Life Building. 

Hosted by the Teaching and Learning Academy, this event is part of the Teaching Insights series and will be facilitated by Dr Ian Sadler, Reader in Sport and Exercise Science Education and Senior Fellow of Advance HE, School of Sport and Exercise Science.

Email: TLAcademy@ljmu.ac.uk

Please click on the below 'Begin Registration' button to register for this event.