About moderation

Why we use moderation

Having a high-quality moderation process means that:

• our students feel confident that our assessments are consistent across different subjects and courses
• our teaching staff feel confident that their judgments align with Charles Sturt policies, internal and external standards, and with their peers
• we meet the requirements of external stakeholders and accreditation bodies.

The comparisons, learning and quality improvements that come about through moderating our assessments and learning materials ensures that our qualifications remain valued by students, employers and industry alike.

Moderation system

We use the Quality Assurance and Reflection System (QUASAR) to moderate our assessments. This system:

• creates a single, university-wide process
• integrates with other key systems
• creates reporting and documentation that can be used for internal and external review.

Good practice in moderation

• Develop marking criteria and standards with the other subject markers in your team so you all agree with the requirements.
• Develop objective standards and avoid subjective terms which can be interpreted differently by students and markers.
• Have a meeting before you start marking to review the standards that were presented to your students.
• Moderate across the range of all grades.
• Check extremes of marking.
• If you're a single marker, find a moderator to check your work.
• Use moderation methods suitable for your subject, the type of assessment and number of markers.
• Record your practices in the QUASAR system to maintain information about moderation and its results.

These strategies have been adapted from the ALTC Assessment Moderation Toolkit.

Strategies for moderation during session

There are a range of strategies that can be employed for the moderation of marking during session. These may occur:

1. Prior to marking
2. While marking, and
3. Before returning feedback and marks to students.

Your School may choose to use one or more of the moderation strategies outlined, relevant to the individual situation. For example, establishing standards through consensus is necessary when you have a team of markers, however of little value if there is only one academic responsible for teaching and assessing the subject.

Assessment committees

School and Faculty Assessment Committees play an important role in moderating assessment practices. In particular, rather than being primarily concerned with the outcome of the assessment process, as reflected by the grade distribution within each subject, School and Faculty Assessment Committees are expected to scrutinise subjects in terms of their assessment design, assessment and moderation processes and the outcomes of those processes.

The focus is on ensuring that subjects are able to demonstrate a criterion referenced and standards based assessment design, validated through peer review, and implemented in a fair and consistent way for all cohorts.

All this moderation activity is then reported to Academic Senate, and these records help fulfil our obligations under TEQSA and the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021. It's important to remember, that while records need to be maintained to demonstrate what we are doing, the 'doing' should be our focus; the comparisons, learning and quality improvements that come about through moderating our assessments and learning materials ensures that CSU qualifications remain valued by students, employers and industry alike.

Get support

If you're new to QUASAR or you're stuck with any part of the system, we're here to help.

Log a Service Request