On Friday 18th September, Fashion Technology Academy (FTA) held a Standardisation meeting with all tutors and staff involved in the assessment process.
What is Standardisation?
It is a process that ensures all staff, such as teachers, trainers, assessors, and quality assurers, interpret and follow the requirements of the programme or qualification in the same way. The process helps ensure consistency and fairness for all learners.
Aim of Standardisation:
- An opportunity to discuss changes and developments to the course
- Ensuring that assessment decisions are fair for all learners
- Consistency and fairness of delivery and assessment decisions
- Maintaining an audit trail of aspects standardised
- Meeting quality assurance requirements
- Re-assessment to spot errors or incorrect decisions by assessors, plagiarism or cheating by learners
- Setting action plans for the development of activities, systems and staff
- Sharing good practice
- Spotting trends or inconsistencies
During the standardisation meeting, we will sample and review 4 portfolios. We also discuss the following:
- Discussion on course materials and resources
- Comparing how documents have been completed
- Deciding alternative methods of assessment for any particular learner’s requirements or needs
- Reviewing how assessment plans and feedback records are completed by different assessors
- The way feedback is given to learners
Group Discussion- Checklist for all assessors/tutors:
- Are the assessment methods appropriate and sufficient? Which methods were used?
- Does the evidence meet all the required criteria?
- Is there a feedback record clearly showing what has been achieved? (Is it adequate and detailed?)
- Do you agree with the assessment decisions?
- Are all the relevant documents signed and dated?
- Feedback: Providing constructive, evidence-based feedback on strengths and areas for improvement.
- Lesson Plans & Materials: Examples of instruction, activities, and resources used.
- Student Work Samples: Evidence of student engagement and learning, along with reflections on their outcomes.
Findings from the presentation:
- To remove certain topics from the FADS and format the layout so it’s easy to read.
- To remove the Evidence Matrix on the reverse side of the FAD (Stitching).
- FADS to be more personalised and constructive for self-development.
- Everyone agreed with the final assessment decision and feedback given.
- Learner comments on the first few pages of the Pattern workbooks have been removed. We are keeping the ‘comment’ section at the end of each unit.
Lan Leeder, Head of Education at the FTA, said: “Standardisation meetings for assessment are essential to ensure that all assessors apply marking standards and assessment criteria consistently. This leads to fair, accurate, and credible results for all learners. It was great to see that all assessors and tutors came together, reviewed each other’s work, and provided constructive feedback for development.”