Adopting new practice: Using Feedback to Develop a University-wide Moderation Process that closes the assessment loop

In higher education, assessment practices are increasingly coming under scrutiny as a scholarship of assessment is being developed across the sector. Many institutions are promoting the use of criterion-referenced assessment, particularly in conjunction with the use of standards, yet despite this widespread support, the effective implementation of such a system can be problematic. Generating criteria that are clear and valid, developing a shared understanding of criteria and standards among students and assessors and arriving at final awards are key issues being addressed by scholars of assessment. At a meta-level, implementation of a fundamentally new assessment practice within an institution requires change management that takes account of a broader range of factors beyond issues of scholarship. This paper describes the procedure of articulating a moderation process in response to concerns about the removal of the requirement to �grade on the curve�. The moderation process has three foci: the assessment design (pre-assessment focus), making judgments (point of assessment focus) and determining grading outputs (post-assessment focus). Importantly, the post-assessment focus explicitly builds in review and feed forward in relation to assessment design, thereby closing the loop of the assessment process.