Assessment
Am I right in thinking that if anything in Mark Band 1 is missing, the student scores 0 (because Assessment Guidance section states 'To be eligible for Mark Band 1, learners MUST...') and that a student can only score in Mark Band 2 if the minimum requirements for access to Mar Band 2 are met?
The Assessment Guidance spells out exactly what students have to achieve to be eligible for marks in a Mark Band. If a student has met all the requirements to be eligible for Mark Band 2, for example, he/she will also have done everything necessary to be eligible for full marks in Mark Band 1.
Do the same reports / queries produced by all candidates constitute over guidance?
Yes, to an extent, if the work is completely identical, but students can customise the reports and queries which shows some independence. Again, we would suggest that for some mid-low mark band students this may be the only satisfactory way to enable them to achieve their potential.
A higher degree of guidance is justifiable due to the vocational nature of the course.
This is true, but as in the case of other qualifications, students should be enabled through teaching to work independently to complete coursework. There will of necessity be guidance when students are planning to interview the user(s) or other adult (from an organisation) that is what we would call teaching - we as professionals should be 'translating' the specification so that students can understand what is required. Clearly they need guidance in the phrasing of questions if they are going to conduct an interview - but this is teaching not guidance that would impede the possibility of independent working. A common questionnaire devised by the group during a taught lesson would not necessarily produce all the same answers and analyses.
Is the Assessment Criteria Guide used to best fit students in to mark bands?
This is what the Assessment Criteria Guide is striving to achieve - holistically this could happen, but there has to be some concrete evidence or documented professional judgement with which the moderator must agree. You cannot simply best fit a student into MB2 to get a 'C' just because they are getting a C elsewhere - otherwise what would be the point of doing the coursework in the first place?
Do we need to annotate candidates’ portfolio work?
Annotation is a mandatory requirement for internally assessed work. As a minimum, teachers must complete the annotation column on the mark record sheet by listing the portfolio page number(s) where evidence can be found for each of the assessment criteria. However, moderators do find more detailed annotation on the work itself extremely useful since it pinpoints evidence of achievement of particular assessment criteria.
Moderation
Will the moderator want to see all of the eportfolios for a particular student or will he/she ask for a selection of eportfolios from different students for each unit? Will the sample size still be 5?
The sample size will be 10. We will specify which eportfolios we wish to see. They won't all be from the same student.
If we elect to have Units 1 and 2 moderated in January 06, will the students be allowed to improve their work and have these units re-moderated in June 06? If this is acceptable, is there any charge for this, to the centre?
Students will be able to resubmit work for moderation. This will carry a cost (as any resit does currently).
There's a coursework deadline in January. Is that for just the first unit?
You can submit any of the AS portfolio units for moderation in January.
Is there available, or are there any plans to produce, a portfolio checklist for any of the Applied ICT units as there are for AVCE ICT?
Check lists aren't really appropriate for this qualification, which - unlike VCE - does not have a 'hurdle' model of assessment that requires students to complete everything in the 'E' column in order to be eligible for marks in the 'C' column.
Which candidates work should I send to the moderator?
This information is available once the Examinations Officer logs onto Edexcel Online and selects the GCE qualifications. Please note that samples for each of the Units are likely to be sent to different moderators. Please refer to the Guidance for Centres on the vocational GCE page of the website - this will give detailed instructions on the sampling.
Is there a Candidate Mark Record sheet for all units?
These are compulsory and centres must use them to provide detailed annotation, which is mandatory, to aid the moderation of the work, including professional judgement.
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