Making Assessment Judgements from Evidence

Making Assessment Judgements from Different Evidence Sources

It is vital that as an assessor, you understand that the judgement of competence needs to be the same for all your learners and that there must be a quantifiable measure for declaration of “Competence” or “Not yet competent”. You should be able to find the policies related to assessment as a guideline from the organisation for which you are assessing. These will have the following guidelines for you to utilise as assessor:

• Benchmark for competence, i.e. the learner needs to reach “x” to be declared competent – there is often some debate here, as there is a misconception that one cannot judge a learner through mark allocation. This is not strictly true; you can in fact benchmark the standard for competence to be, for example 80%, even on answers where the learners’ own situation will determine the answer.
• Assessment instruments should be provided with a marking matrix or model answer sheet to ensure that you judge all learners against the exact same criteria.
• You should have clarity as to how many re-assessment opportunities the learner should get – most organisations have a 3-times assessment policy for a learner registered against a specific programme and then learners are liable for the costs involved in assessment after the 3rd opportunity.