Visiting moderation

This section applies to Cambridge Technicals internally-assessed units. 

Candidates’ work is assessed and standardised by centre staff and then externally moderated by an OCR visiting moderator. Assessment and moderation can take place at any time.

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, you must complete the centre consortium arrangements form within the JCQ Centre Admin Portal (CAP). To access the form, log in to Interchange, hover over ‘Access arrangements’ and then click on ‘Access arrangements’ again in the left-hand menu.

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 Allocation team opsalloc@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 visiting moderator to your centre and they will contact you to provisionally agree mutually convenient dates for their visits. 

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 visiting moderator, please contact us.

If candidates require Cambridge Technicals results in time for university entrance or to coincide with the GCSE results release, please book your final visit by 1 June to ensure the visit is completed by 30 June.

Candidates generate evidence which will be assessed against the learning outcomes and assessment criteria specified in each unit provided on the qualification pages. This is then authenticated and internally standardised. 

It’s important students produce work in a format that will allow you to prepare your samples easily. This document provides information on how to prepare your work to be uploaded, file formats and how to label files:

You must submit Art and Design samples digitally. We’ve created additional guidance on how to photograph and video candidate work as well as the format of the work.

We’ve also produced some additional guidance for preparing your samples for Sport and Physical Activity (2016 suite).

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 visiting moderator will select a sample and then you will receive an email from Interchange telling you the sample is ready to view. You should receive the sample request at least one week before the visit.

To view the selected sample: 

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 indicated with a green tick. 

Sending work digitally 

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

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

Submitting work by post 

If you cannot send candidate work digitally, you can send work by post for all subjects apart from Art and Design. 

When you confirm your virtual visit with your moderator, please let them know you need to submit your sample by post – they will then provide you with more details on how to prepare and package your sample. 

When you have prepared your sample, your moderator will arrange for the work to be collected.

During 2020/21, moderation visits will be ‘virtual’ rather than in person. The moderation visit will take place virtually 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 mirror a moderator visiting your centre. Your 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 feedback session at the end of the day. 

For more information, see the virtual visit presentation by one of our Cambridge Technicals Principal Moderators.

• 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.

You will then be emailed a moderation report within 48 hours of the moderation. For Cambridge Technicals (2016 suite), you will also be able to view the unit results for each candidate via the candidate unit 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.