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.
Synoptic assessment is about the design of the assessment. It requires the learner to bring together knowledge, skills and understanding from different parts of a qualification, unit or programme.
Holistic assessment is about how the assessor judges the evidence. Evidence is considered together rather than each criterion or piece of evidence being viewed entirely in isolation.
They can be used together. For example, a learner may complete one synoptic project and the assessor may judge the resulting evidence holistically across several assessment criteria.
In all cases, the evidence must still be clearly mapped to the individual standards being claimed.
Usually, but you must first check the relevant Qualification Guide for any restrictions.
Remote assessment must remain valid, fair, secure and manageable. Providers need suitable arrangements for learner identity, supervision, assessment conditions, authenticity, technology, safeguarding, privacy and evidence retention.
Some practical skills may not be suitable for remote assessment if the assessor cannot reliably observe the learner’s performance.
Start with the Qualification Guide and assessment documentation because some qualifications prescribe particular assessment methods.
Where the method is not prescribed, choose a method that validly assesses what the learner is required to know, understand or do.
For example, practical skills are normally better evidenced through observation or performance evidence than through written explanation alone. Knowledge and higher-level thinking may be assessed through assignments, questioning, projects, case studies or professional discussion.
Using a range of appropriate methods can also reduce unnecessary reliance on written evidence.
You can create learner-friendly assessment tasks, but you must not change the level or demand of the assessment criterion.
Particular care is needed with command verbs. For example, a task based on an assessment criterion requiring a learner to explain must require more than a list or simple description.
The task must give the learner a genuine opportunity to produce evidence at the level required by the original assessment criterion.
Check the qualification’s Rules of Combination at several points, not just at the end of the programme.
Checks should take place during programme approval, learner registration, assessment planning, unit selection, internal quality assurance, certification claims and whenever a learner’s course or unit selection changes.
Incorrect unit choices can make a learner ineligible for certification even where the work itself has been successfully completed.
For medium- and high-risk qualifications, assessment plans must be reviewed by the Quality and Standards Advisor before delivery.
Providers should also check the relevant Qualification Guide for any additional qualification-specific approval requirements.
Internally, the plan should be checked by the IQA to confirm matters such as the correct units, rules of combination and quality assurance arrangements.
The assessment plan should be created at the start of the programme, before assessment activity begins.
It should identify how and when the qualification will be assessed and quality assured, including units, assessment methods, assessors, IQAs, deadlines, IQA dates, resubmission opportunities where permitted, resources, reasonable adjustments, sampling and external quality assurance deadlines.
The assessment plan is a working document. If arrangements change, update it and maintain clear version control.
Assessors must not assess family members. Providers must also identify and manage any other actual or potential conflict of interest that could affect, or appear to affect, the assessor’s impartiality. Any and all conflicts of interest must be declared to Open Awards as soon as they are identified.
Where impartiality could reasonably be questioned, an alternative assessment arrangement should be put in place and recorded.
Not in every case. Open Awards does not normally require assessors to already hold a formal teaching or assessment qualification, although assessors are expected to be working towards one.
Assessors must have relevant, current occupational experience and competence at or above the level they are assessing, unless the qualification-specific requirements state otherwise.
Always check the relevant Qualification Guide and assessment documentation first, as qualification-specific requirements take precedence over the general guidance.
Open Awards quality assurance documents cover all aspects of planning, assessment and internal quality assurance. They can be found on The Portal under ‘Documents and Forms’ and Quality Assurance Templates – non access’.