Visiting moderation

This section applies to moderation for Cambridge Technicals internally assessed units. Assessment and moderation can take place at any time.

For more details about the assessment, authentication and internal standardisation, see the following page:

Approved centres are entitled to two free visits per subject area/sector per academic year. If required, you can request additional moderation visits by contacting the VQ Panel Management team at VQ.panelmanagement@ocr.org.uk. These are charged at the standard visit fee (see the fees list).

Once you have made your first entries, we will allocate a moderator to your centre:

• They will contact you to agree mutually convenient dates for their visits. 
• A month before a visit, they will contact you to confirm the visit date and check whether you would like a virtual or face-to-face moderation visit (see below).
  

We recommend arranging the first visit of the year as early as possible, especially when first approved for a qualification. This enables you to move forward with confidence towards final assessment and moderation. This is particularly important if your centre is delivering qualifications through one-year programmes. 

If you have made entries but have not been contacted by your moderator, please contact us.

If candidates require Cambridge Technicals results in time for university entrance or to coincide with the A Level results release, please book your final visit by 15 May to make sure the visit is completed by 30 June.

From September 2022, we are offering centres the choice of a virtual visit with a moderator or an in centre face-to face visit with a moderator. Both options support your better understanding of delivery and assessment:

• The virtual visit enables face-to-face interaction with your moderator and the opportunity to ask questions. If you have previously experienced a virtual visit and have been satisfied with the experience, we encourage you to continue making use of the virtual visit option. For more information, see the virtual visit presentation by one of our Cambridge Technicals Principal Moderators.
• An in-centre face-to-face visit with a moderator takes place in your centre. The moderator will visit you to view and moderate the candidate work.

Letting us know your choice 

You need you to tell your moderator if you would prefer a virtual or a face-to-face in-centre moderation visit 4 weeks before the moderation visit takes place. 

Changes to your visit 

If you wish to change the type or timing of your visit, please get in touch with your moderator. We will try to change your visit where possible but please note that it is usually easier to delay a visit rather than bring it forward. It may not always be possible to change from a virtual visit to a face-to-face in-centre visit as this will depend on the availability of a moderator in your area.

If centres are working together in a consortium, i.e. in cases where all candidates from different centres have been taught and are assessed together, but where they are entered through the centre at which they are on roll, each consortium is entitled to two free visits per subject area/sector per academic year. If you require additional moderation visits for centres within the consortium, please see instructions above regarding requesting additional visits and fees.

You must complete the centre consortium arrangements form within the JCQ Centre Admin Portal (CAP). To access the form, log into Interchange, hover over ‘JCQ Centre Admin Portal’ and then click on ‘JCQ Centre Admin Portal’ again in the left-hand menu. Click on 'Centre consortium arrangements' and complete the required fields.

When you are ready to submit candidates’ work for external moderation, you should make a claim for each candidate via Interchange. 

You will not be able to build or submit a claim without valid entries. Ensure all entries (including top-up and move down entries) are made at least four weeks before a planned moderation visit.

To allow visiting moderators time to select a sample of candidates’ work for moderation, ensure the claim is made at least two weeks before the scheduled moderation visit.

Step-by-step instructions for making a claim are provided in the following guide:

It is also possible to re-claim units at a higher grade.

Once the claims have been submitted, your moderator will select a sample and then you will receive an email from Interchange telling you the sample is ready to view. 

The earliest you would receive a sample request is three weeks before a face-to-face visit.

In all cases, you should expect to receive all sample requests at least 10 days before the moderation visit, provided you have uploaded your claim(s) at least 2 weeks before your visit date.

To view the selected sample in Interchange: 

1. Hover over ‘Certification claims’ in the left-hand menu and click on ‘View claim history’ under the relevant qualification, eg ‘Cambridge Technicals’. 
2. Click on ‘View’ next to the claim that has been sampled (indicated by the ‘Sampled’ message in the Status column). 
3. All the units/candidates that the moderator wishes to sample are shown with a green tick. 

You may be asked for up to six portfolios per assessor per unit (where possible), and must make sure this work is available at the moderation visit. 

In some cases, you may also be asked to share additional pieces of evidence on the day of your moderation visit and you should be prepared to share this with the moderator.

You must upload your candidate work a minimum of 5 days before the virtual visit.

The main way to send us your sample of candidate work will be through our digital submission platform, Secure Exchange. 

We have produced guidance to show you how to use Secure Exchange and upload your candidate work:

It’s important students produce work in a format that will allow you to prepare your samples easily. Please see the guidance below which provides information on how to prepare your work to be uploaded, file formats and how to label files as well as additional guidance on how to photograph and video Art and Design candidate work, prepare samples for Sport and Physical Activity (2016 suite) and prepare animated evidence for Information Technology, Digital Media and Media.

There is no need to send the candidate work to your moderator ahead of your visit. However, you must ensure that the sample of work requested is available for the moderator to view on the day of their visit and that other candidate work is easily accessible should it be requested by your moderator on the day.

Virtual moderation visits

The virtual visit will take place via Microsoft Teams. If you are unfamiliar with Teams, please take a look at our guidance, which explains how to access and use Teams. 

We have also produced some technical guidance to make sure you have the correct IT environment to support your access. We recommend you read these before your virtual visit to avoid any issues on the day. 

The structure of your virtual visit will be as follows. The moderator will:

• Brief you in the morning 
• Carry out their moderation separately, offline 
• Need a subject assessor to be available as required to resolve any queries during the day 
• Schedule a provisional feedback session at the end of the day when they will discuss any amendments and withdrawals in line with scrutiny. 

Face-to-face moderation visits

The structure of the in-centre face-to-face visit will be as follows:

• Date and time are arranged between the centre and the moderator
• Moderator arrives at the centre as agreed
• Centre makes requested sample of candidate work available
• Moderator carries out the moderation in an agreed location within the centre
• Moderator will need a subject assessor available to resolve any queries during the day
• A provisional feedback session will take place in centre when the moderator will discuss any amendments and withdrawals in line with scrutiny

You must make sure that: 

• A quiet base room is available for the OCR visiting moderator in which all work to be sampled will be available and accessible, including facilities for accessing Interchange, moderating any electronic portfolios or replaying any audio and/or video recordings. 
• All other centre-assessed and internally moderated work submitted for moderation is separately available and accessible as above. If applicable, copies of assignments/activities/tasks set by the centre should be included with candidates’ work. 
• All centre assessment and internal standardisation records for all candidates entered for moderation are available, together with copies of centre assignments/activities/tasks (if applicable). 
• All candidate authentication forms have been completed and signed. 
• Opportunities are available (if required) for the visiting moderator to meet with the assessors and internal moderators involved in the assessment/moderation of candidates’ work submitted for moderation. The presence of centre staff will not normally be required until the visiting moderator is ready to discuss outcomes, although centres should ensure that the visiting moderator has sufficient support to deal with any queries during the visit. 

Access to candidates is not required during the external moderation process.

Visiting moderator identification

Due to internal safeguarding policies we appreciate centres may need to see identification from visiting moderators before they are allowed access to the site. We do not issue visiting moderators with any form of identification, and we have advised moderators they should bring the following with them to any visit:

• A valid form of photo identification (e.g. passport, driver’s licence)
• A copy of their OCR invitation to moderate
• A valid DBS certificate if they have one (we do not require visiting moderators to hold a valid DBS certificate in order to fulfil the role).

We also suggest visiting moderators arrange to meet their named contact on arrival at the centre, as they will have the moderator’s details and can verify these with their identification.

If your safeguarding policy requires some form of supervision for visitors whilst on site, this requirement should be discussed with the moderator before the visit so there is no impact on the moderation process.

We have advised visiting moderators of what identification they should take with them on visits; however, if you have any concerns then please contact our Customer Support Centre.

• If the moderator agrees with your centre’s assessment decisions, they will confirm the claims via Interchange for all the candidates submitted for moderation. 
• If they disagree with the decisions, they will provide feedback and amend the claims accordingly before submitting them to OCR. (For the 2012 suite, it may also be possible to withdraw the claim.)
  

If the claim is not withdrawn, you will receive an email to say the claim has been sent to OCR.

We will then email you a moderation visit report after the quality assurance has taken place. You will also be able to view the results for each candidate via the candidate achievement report within Interchange.

Candidate work must be retained by the centre until after the certificates have been issued or any reviews of results processed. We will not consider any enquiries if the work is not retained.