Internal Quality Assurance

What is Internal Quality Assurance?

Internal Quality Assurance (IQA)  is the process by which a centre regularly samples and evaluates its assessment practices and decisions and acts on the findings to ensure consistency and fairness. It is the system that ensures learner evidence is complete and genuinely meets all the required assessment criteria. A robust internal quality assurance system is therefore key to learner achievement.

IQA involves three key processes:

Co-ordination of the assessment process
Internal Quality Assurance of assessed work
Standardisation of assessment practice

This IQA process is typically conducted by one IQA, or in some cases, more than one, i.e. a team of IQAs who are under the direction of a lead IQA. 

The role of the IQA is to ensure that:

Assessment is appropriate, consistent, fair and transparent and does not unintentionally discriminate against any learner
Tutors/assessors receive ongoing advice and support, for example in designing assessment activities
Learners clearly understand assessment requirements and are given opportunities to achieve against the assessment criteria
Assessments are reliable, valid and consistent
Learners’ work is presented in a manner that enables effective EQA to take place
Evidence of learner achievement is clearly mapped to the assessment criteria
Electronic Recommendations for the Award of Credit (ERAC) are accurate

The IQA Process

Create an IQA plan

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Pre-plan your IQA engagements so that everyone knows when these will take place in advance, include:

Sampling dates

EQA visits

Staff training

Standardisation

IQA of assessment tasks

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This ensures tasks are appropriate and allow the learner to meet the assessment criteria.

This should happen before assessment is carried out with learners

Create a Sampling plan

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The sample strategy needs to ensure it covers all assessors, all levels and all units or subject areas.

The minimum sample is five portfolios or if less than five, all the portfolios. For larger groups it should be 10%,

If there is uncertainty about what would constitute an appropriate sample size, the advice of the EQA should be sought.

Interim Sampling

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It identifies any gaps in evidence at an early stage and helps ensure that learners achieve

It allows learners to be supported in producing any additional evidence required

It ensures that any issues with learners are picked up before the course is completed

Identifies areas for staff training

Summative sampling

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The IQA is responsible for ensuring all portfolios are ready when presented for EQA.

The IQA’s sample should show that the Assessor has ensured that learner evidence is appropriate, effectively labelled, and fully ready for the EQA to consider.

Standardisation

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Standardisation should take place at least once a year and should include all assessors

Standardisation is aimed at ensuring a consistent approach to assessment and IQA within the organisation

Detailed notes of these meetings ahould be kept as your EQA will ask to see these.

The role of the EQA

A robust IQA system enables the EQA normally to only be required to sample learners’ work as opposed to scrutinising all the learners’ portfolios. The EQA relies on the effectiveness and integrity of the centre’s internal quality assurance system to not put forward learners who have not achieved. If the EQA finds the internal quality assurance process is not effective and/or performed with absolute integrity, then the EQA will be forced to instead consider a much greater number of learners’ evidence themselves. Considering more learners is time consuming for the EQA and will cause delay. This situation may also result in the centre being awarded a ‘high risk’ status, since the integrity of the awarding system would be seen as compromised.

Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) templates

OCN London has developed a set of internal quality assurance (IQA) templates for use as part of the IQA process and which are available for centres to use in the Internal Quality Assurance area.

These are based on good practice in centres as identified by External Quality Assurers (EQAs).

Use of these is not mandatory but recommended to new centres and to existing centres reviewing their IQA practice. Internal Quality Assurance forms for the Access to HE Diploma are available in the Access to HE Centre area.