National External Moderation Summary Report for 2008, Semester 2

Prescription: 580 Principles of Tourism

Introduction

This report provides a national perspective on the moderation of 580 Principles of Tourism .

Assessment materials from three Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) were moderated for this prescription. A new moderation report format was piloted, which required moderators to consider four key questions:

do assessment activities meet prescription requirements?
are assessments clear, appropriate and fair to learners?
is there sufficient guidance provided for assessors in assessment schedules?
are assessor decisions about learner work consistent?

Of the three submissions:

two met all key assessment requirements
one met key assessment requirements, but required some modification before next course delivery.

The key area to address in modification or redevelopment of assessment materials was incomplete coverage of the prescription requirements across assessment activities, particularly of key elements and sub components.

Presentation of assessment materials

Submissions were well presented.

Assessment grids

Generally, assessment grid components and weightings matched those in the assessment materials, although a number of small inconsistencies were noted.

Assessment activities

The key considerations for moderators in deciding whether prescription requirements were met were whether tasks:

assessed all prescription learning outcomes, with appropriate weightings
were at the appropriate level.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes indicate assessment outcomes and specify what learners need to know and be able to do. Key elements indicate assessment coverage and specify how the related learning outcome should be evidenced. Key element assessment evidence should be provided in the context of the learning outcome.

A 10% aggregate variance is allowed in assessment weightings. That is, the percentage variation in total across all learning outcomes should not be more than 10%.

The most common issues relating to assessment activities were:

learning outcome 2 key element (c) and the tourism statistics component of key element (d): These key elements were either not covered or only partially covered in assessment activities .
learning outcome 3 key element (a), the structure of the tourism industry in New Zealand : The interrelationship of participants and public and private sector roles were either not covered or only partially covered in assessment activities
learning outcome 3 (general): Usage of tourism product in New Zealand was only partially assessed
general: There seemed to be a heavy focus in some assessments on regional New Zealand tourism rather than tourism at a national level.

Level

Assessment activities were, on the whole, at the appropriate level.

General guidance about prescription format is available in tertiary circular T2009/004, Appendix 1.

Assessment conditions and instructions

The key consideration for moderators was whether assessment conditions and instructions were clear, appropriate and fair to learners.

In most cases assessment instructions were clear and well written. However, the wording in assignments was not always as clear as that in formal tests or exams. Most assessments took place under controlled conditions (i.e. tests, exams). Including more project or assignment work might better reflect industry expectations.

Assessment schedules

The key considerations for moderators in deciding whether sufficient guidance was provided for assessors were whether assessment schedules:

gave examples of learner responses (e.g. model answers, and/or a range of appropriate answers, and/or quality criteria for answers) that met prescription requirements
provided a sufficiently detailed breakdown of marks to ensure consistent marking.

Assessment schedules were generally very detailed with model or sample answers and appropriately detailed mark allocations.

Assessor decisions

The key considerations for moderators in deciding whether assessor decisions were consistent were whether:

marking rewarded a similar quality of work with similar marks
marking rewarded learner work in a manner consistent with prescription requirements.

Assessment decisions were consistent across the candidate's work which was submitted for moderation.

Conclusions

Some high quality work was presented. Some issues were identified with regard to coverage of the prescription's learning outcomes and key elements across assessment activities. This can partly be attributed to a lack of detailed assessment notes in the prescription, which will be addressed as part of prescription review.

A number of TEOs are still using the 180 prescription. The incorporation of more detailed assessment notes into the new prescription may ease the transition from old to new for these TEOs.

Page updated: 16 June 2009