The Quality Assurance team has three core functions:
Consent to assess (CTA): This allows a registered Tertiary Education Organisation (‘TEO’) / Provider to deliver and award standards and award credits. NZQA grants consent to assess based on the WDC’s recommendation. The QA team evaluates a TEO / Provider’s ability to deliver standards using eight general criteria:
For more information on the Consent to Assess process, please refer to the NZQA website: Consent to assess » NZQA.
Pre-assessment moderation: Assessment materials are moderated prior to use with learners / ākonga. The purpose of the pre-assessment moderation is to ensure that an assessment:
Post-assessment moderation: TEO’s conduct internal post-assessment moderation after the use of the assessment material with a learners / ākonga. We then request samples of this post-moderation to review consistency of assessment. Its purpose is to evaluate the assessor’s judgement and ensure it meets the national standard.
No: Toitū Te Waiora does not develop or supply any learning materials to TEOs/Providers. Our role, as Standard Setting Body (SSB) for Community, Health, Education and Social Services industries, is to develop and manage qualifications, micro-credentials and skill standards. We endorse programmes of study leading to qualifications within our gazetted coverage, and develop skill standards. We are transitioning unit standards into skill standards over the next 5 years. In the meantime, we will continue to maintain the existing Unit Standards.
TEO’s / Providers are responsible for develop learning materials and other educational resources. Some TEO’s / Providers purchase learning materials from contractor, but this is not a service that Toitū te Waiora can assist with.
Yes: Internal quality assurance a very important process for TEO’s / Providers to undertake, as a way of demonstrating a continual cycle of improvement when it comes to assessment practice. Both internal pre and post assessment moderation contribute to this. It is also a requirement of holding and retaining consent to assess. It is the best way to ensure you are providing the best possible resources to measure achievement for your ākonga.
Yes: A coversheet is required when submitting materials for either pre or post assessment moderation. A completed coversheet contains important information (i.e., the TEO / Provider name, moderation contact person, the unit standards being pre-moderated or the number of samples provided for post-assessment moderation) that the QA team needs when creating a moderation project.
No: Under our Order in Council, Toitū Te Waiora is not permitted to charge for any services we provide. There is no charge for CTA, pre-assessment moderation, or post-assessment moderation.
NZQA does have application charges – please refer to the NZQA website to check their fees for evaluating your CTA application. Consent to assess » NZQA
We will contact you: We encourage you check all documentation before sending it to us and ensure everything that needs to be included is sent to us.
Whilst our preference is to receive electronic documents, if you do need to send us paper-based submissions, it helps in the scanning process if they have been double sided printed (e.g. post-assessment materials).
As we move to our online portal for submission of post-moderation, you will be able to scan and upload directly into the moderation project.
Toitū Te Waiora encourages appropriate use of online assessment tools for learners. We are required in our evaluation (pre/post assessment moderation) of online assessment tools to access the online platform, with appropriate access rights to view completed assessments, as well as being able to view assessment documentation and question banks. We will not require write-privileges to either the assessment or learner outcomes but will require sufficient access to the system to conduct appropriate evaluations. We will work with TEO’s / Providers on a case-by-case project where assessment is online / self-marking.
Our current process is for pre/post assessment moderation materials to be sent in via email – [email protected]. The maximum file capacity we can receive is currently 20mb. If your submission is larger than 20mb, it will need to be sent as zip file/s. If it is easier for you, we could directly access a data sharing platform you can store your moderation assessments within (e.g. Google Drive, etc). We would need to be given appropriate permissions to access by your IT team.
As mentioned above, an online portal is being developed and we anticipate it being available in quarter two of 2023 to replace submission via email. We will let you know when the portal is available.
Yes: Moderation materials are generally submitted to us via email. However, some providers still need to send hard copy via courier or post. Please contact us if you need to submit a hard copy to ensure that materials are sent directly to the assigned Quality Assurance Specialist. Our QA team are spread throughout the country, and we have offices in Aucklland and Wellington. To avoid any unnecessary delays in processing your moderation, we need to advise the best address for you to send your samples to.
In the case of single or small moderation packages (for example up to five unit standards) we have a KPI of 20-working day turnaround timeframe. For larger integrated assessment moderation packages there needs to be more time allocated for evaluation. In these cases we discuss turnaround target dates with TEO’s / Providers when we receive their submission.
