Vinay Thawait, Computer Science, IT and Creative iMedia Subject Advisor

Here at OCR we’ve had lots of queries from centres in recent weeks about marking coursework, or non-exam assessment (NEA). For Cambridge Technicals in IT L2/L3 (2016), this means the centre-assessed NEA units.

There have been questions about how to apply the mark scheme. This isn’t surprising as it hasn’t been assessed for two years, so a larger number of teachers than normal will be submitting marks for moderation for the first time. We’ve also had questions about administrative requirements, and most particularly about whether any allowances should be made when marking for the abnormal and difficult circumstances many students have had to contend with while completing their assignments. 

As the JCQ guidance on NEA marking says: 

“When you come to assess your students’ NEA, you should mark all NEA using the published mark schemes, as you did before the pandemic disruption. If you have more than one person marking your NEA, you must carry out standardisation activities as usual in an exam year, to ensure all your markers are marking to the same standard and using the relevant mark scheme. 

You must not try to account for disruption your learners have experienced by marking more leniently than you would normally. Teachers should not be making holistic and speculative judgements about overall performance or potential. Your marking should be based solely on the completed work in accordance with the published mark scheme. Exam boards will moderate all NEA in the usual way this year.”

In the light of that recent JCQ announcement, and the queries we’ve had from you, we thought it would be helpful to provide a quick summary of the support available to ensure that you are marking to the correct standard.

Guides to applying the grading criteria and assessment guidance

There are several resources that will help you have confidence in your application of the grading criteria for Cambridge Technical in IT L2/L3 (2016):

• A free on-line marking course is available on OCR Train. This can be completed in your own time and includes a series of tests designed to ensure that you are correctly allocating levels to pieces of work. 
• Our CPD ‘making the grade’ webinar could be a one-stop shop for all your needs in improving your delivery and assessment of moderated units. You will look at the grading criteria and assessment guidance in detail and review how to apply it fairly and accurately to candidate work. 
• The candidate exemplars with the moderator’s commentary for Level 2 and Level 3 units could be useful to you to understand and improve internal assessment and grading. 
• An overview of adaptations allowed for summer 2022 could be reviewed within ‘Your Guide to the Changes for 2022’ document for both Level 2 and Level 3. 
• Finally, do refer back to the moderator’s reports on which are published after each exam series, and which often include pointers on grading internal assessment. You can access these on the Assessment section of our website.

Administrative points to remember

Information on visiting/virtual moderation for Cambridge Technicals is available on the administration section of our website. 

For the Cambridge Technical in IT L2/L3 (2016), please note:

• Each unit has a Unit Recording Sheet (URS) that must be used to record the assessment decisions of your students. These must be included with the students’ portfolio of evidence. These are available to download from the Administration section of our Cambridge Technical in IT L2 and L3 web pages. 
• You must complete this for each student and each unit you entered for certification.
• Each candidate must sign a declaration before submitting their work to the assessor, confirming the work is their own by completing a candidate authentication statement. Keep the completed form within your centre – you only need to send it to the moderator or to OCR if it is requested.
• Assessors are required to declare that the work submitted for internal assessment is the candidate’s own work. This must be done when the claim is made. Through this declaration, you confirm signed candidate declarations for all candidates who are submitted on the claim.
  
• A video presentation to outline the virtual moderation as visiting moderation is now available to centres. 
• Meaningful Employment Involvement (MEI) is mandatory for this qualification. A completed MEI centre plan will be required for this qualification and will be quality assured by your OCR virtual moderator.

Looking forward to next year’s cohort

We hope that your students enjoy the research and analysis, the project development life cycle, designing, developing prototyping, testing and reviewing IT products. Each year we’re really impressed to see the range and diversity of IT solutions submitted. 

Remember, there is support available for students when they come to think about solving the assignment scenarios and tasks:

• You could use our assignment checking service available for this qualification, if you are concerned that an assignment designed by yourself for a unit may not meet the unit requirements.
  • Checking of mandatory 2012 suite unit assignments is completely free.
  • There’s a £30 fee per assignment for 2012 suite optional units and all 2016 suite units.
  • You can only submit one assignment at a time. If you would like to submit multiple assignments to be checked, then please complete this a separate form once for each assignment.
• Students can browse the model assignments for some units, review the grading criteria and the assessment guidance for their chosen pathway’s units.
• We will, as always, be offering CPD courses for Cambridge Technical IT qualifications in the next school academic year. Keep an eye on the Professional Development section of our website and be sure to have signed up for subject updates (details below) to get details of when these become available.
  

Stay connected

If you have any questions, you can email vocational.qualifications@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or tweet us @OCR_ICT. You can also sign up to receive email updates about resources and support.

About the author

Vinay joined OCR in July 2014 to support the GQ reform and development of the AS and A Level Computer Science qualifications. Since then, he has been involved in the development of the reformed GCSE (9-1) Computer Science and Entry Level Computer Science and recently with the redevelopment of Cambridge National in IT qualification. Before joining OCR, Vinay spent more than 20 years in IT and Computer Science teaching and leadership roles, working for several schools as well as local authorities educational support team. He was the National Bid Lead for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative within Capita IT, and also the Head of Operations for an audio-visual educational software development company. Vinay has a degree, three post-graduate masters and NPQH from Warwick, Coventry, and Nottingham Universities.