FAQs - Quality, Delivery and Assessment

Take a look at our FAQs, designed to support you with any queries you may have around quality, delivery and assessment.

Evidence supporting assessment decisions must be accessible for external quality assurance. This includes assignment briefs (or assessment tasks), learner evidence, assessment decisions, learner feedback, and any other relevant records so that Open Awards can verify that assessment standards have been correctly applied.

Open Awards provides templates for all aspects of assessment and IQA. These can be found in the documents and forms section on The Portal under Quality Assurance Templates – Non Access.
Open Awards does not mandate the use of these documents. However, the Provider must ensure that their own documents ensure a standardised and consistent approach to assessment and IQA in order to demonstrate best practice quality assurance.

No. AIV arrangements apply to eligible providers and qualifications.
AIV status may be available where a provider is considered low risk, has robust IQA systems and demonstrates consistently strong assessment and internal quality assurance. Some qualifications are not eligible.
An AIV can verify internally quality-assured assessment decisions and submit results for certification without external quality assurance being required for every individual course run.
AIV status remains subject to Open Awards monitoring. AIVs must participate in at least one Open Awards standardisation event each year. Open Awards may remove AIV status if concerns arise about assessment or qualification integrity.

Providers must retain IQA sampling evidence, assessment planning and pre-verification records for three years and make them available for external quality assurance.
Complete learner assessment and IQA records must be retained for at least three years following certification.
Electronic records are acceptable, but systems must be secure, appropriately backed up, version controlled and accessible for IQA and External Quality Assurance (EQA).

The IQA should check the qualification requirements first and confirm that assessment briefs clearly state whether AI use is permitted and what learners need to declare.
IQA activity should consider authenticity, learner declarations and whether assessors are applying AI rules consistently.
Where AI use is declared or suspected, enhanced authentication may be appropriate, such as professional discussion, checking draft or version histories, supervised evidence points or reviewing permitted prompts and outputs.
Suspected malpractice involving AI-generated content must be reported to Open Awards in accordance with the guidance.

Useful standardisation involves assessors making and comparing real assessment judgements.
For example, assessors might independently assess the same sample of learner evidence and compare their decisions, review borderline examples or discuss what different command verbs require.
Teams should agree what insufficient, sufficient and stronger evidence looks like and should consider different assessment methods such as observation, professional discussion, written evidence, RPL, witness statements and video or audio evidence.
The purpose is consistent interpretation and application of the required standard.

Records should provide a clear audit trail and normally include:
  • The date
  • Qualification, unit or component
  • Assessors participating
  • Assessment criteria or issues discussed
  • Learner evidence or sample materials used
  • Examples of borderline judgements
  • Decisions agreed
  • Actions required
  • The person responsible
  • Deadlines and follow-up arrangements
Standardisation records must be retained for external quality assurance purposes.

Standardisation should be planned at appropriate points throughout the academic year rather than treated as a single annual meeting.
Additional standardisation should take place when needed, including:
  • When new assessors or IQAs join the team
  • Before final decisions and certification where appropriate
  • Following IQA or EQA findings
  • When assessment concerns arise
  • When qualification or assessment requirements change
Standardisation should use assessment standards and evidence, rather than being limited to general administrative updates.

IQA feedback should be clear, evidence-based and focused on action.
It should identify:
  • What the assessor is doing well
  • What needs to change
  • The action required
  • Who is responsible
  • The deadline
  • How the IQA will follow up the action
Actions should be monitored until they are completed rather than simply being recorded and forgotten.

The IQA should check that feedback relates to the learner’s evidence and the relevant assessment criteria, mark scheme or grading descriptors.
Feedback should be clear and useful without coaching the learner.
After formal assessment, an assessor may explain which criteria have not been achieved and why the evidence is insufficient, but should not correct the learner’s work, draft replacement evidence or provide detailed instructions telling the learner exactly what to add.
Where a resubmission or resit is permitted, the IQA should check that it has been authorised, recorded and completed independently.