Moderator FAQ

What is a Moderator?

A moderator is someone who conducts quality assurance in relation to the assessments carried out by assessors.

In addition to being a registered assessor, a moderator must also meet the requirements of the Conduct Moderation of Outcomes-Based Assessments unit standard.

About registered Assessors and Moderators in the Workplace

The fact is that if a company pays more than lip service to its training programme, it must make use of assessors and moderators. The company must ensure that its assessors and moderators are trained to the highest standards and that the people being trained in the company improve their skills and that the products being produced show a marked and quantifiable improvement. The company should also show an improvement in its reputation, as the quality of its people start being recognised as industry leaders being sought after by other companies in the industry.

Assessors and Moderators are the building blocks of any company’s skills base.

What is moderation?

Moderation is a process of quality assurance where the activities of an assessor are quality assured to confirm that the assessor conducted the assessment in a fair manner and that the evidence for competence, required by the standard, is available and correct.

What is a registered moderator?

A registered moderator is someone who is trained specifically against a national unit standard, 115759, in the process of moderation. A registered moderator meets the set criteria and requirements of the specific SETA which s/he intends to register with. To register as a moderator with a SETA, the moderator must provide evidence of her/his proficiency in the specific area in which s/he wants to register and that they have also successfully completed the unit standard training for assessors, 115753.

Who should be registered moderators?

The following employees are recommended to be trained as moderators:

  1. Anyone who is a registered assessor; and
  2. Line staff members responsible for assessment in the workplace (such as supervisors and managers).

Who are the role players within the moderation process?

Role-players could include ETQA or Moderating Body personnel, internal or external moderators and assessors. Records are maintained in accordance with organisational quality assurance and ETQA requirements.

What Can I Get from The Course?

  • Credits towards a full qualification
  • Opportunity to register as a moderator with various SETAs
  • 10 Credits towards on successful completion which can be used towards a full qualification
  • Improves your employability
  • Gives you the opportunity for a change in career focus
  • Advancement in your field as an authority
  • Can freelance as registered independent moderator
  • Can perform contractual moderation for ETQAs or other training providers

What does a Moderator do?

In a typical workplace environment, a Moderator will:

  • Conduct moderation of outcomes-based assessments
  • Ensure that the assessment process followed by the assessor is fair, valid and relevant
  • Apply quality assurance of learning material used, training, assessment documentation, assessments and record-keeping
  • Liaise with the ETQAs of the SETA’s
  • Assist in the development and implementation of Skills Development policies and procedures
  • Assist in development of assessment standards to test knowledge and skills of candidates during a recruitment process
  • Moderate evidence for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

How is moderation in groups different from moderation in spaces?

You can enable moderation on some spaces and sub-spaces, but not others. For each space or sub-space with moderation enabled, you can designate a different user to be the Space Moderator. Projects inherit the moderation settings of their container/parent space or sub-space.

Groups are contained by the system container (also called the root container or Jive Community) and inherit its moderation settings. Therefore, if you enable moderation in the system container (root), moderation is enabled for the system/root container and all groups. You cannot enable moderation on an individual group. All moderation requests in the system (root) container and groups will be sent to the Global Moderator(s).

Can I moderate the creation of groups?

There is no specific setting to set up moderation for the creation of groups. However, you can implement a workaround by limiting the permissions of group creation to one group of users. Regular users would then have to request the creation of a new group from the group with permission.

What kinds of content can be moderated?

Nearly all content types can be moderated.

You cannot moderate content created in private groups, secret groups, or content that has visibility limited to the author (Hidden) or to specific users.

Who Is The Course For?

  • HR Managers
  • Trainers
  • Learner Trainers
  • Coaches
  • Facilitators
  • T&D Managers
  • Skills Development Facilitators
  • Assessors and anyone needing to moderate assessments of staff or be accredited by the ETDP SETA as a moderator.

How do the Duties of Assessors and Moderator Differ?

An assessor is responsible for:

  1. Planning the assessments that need to be completed by learners.
  2. Conducting assessments (including assignments and tests) and marking assessments to ensure that learners measure up to the required standards. According to WorkInfo, an assessor should:
  • “Be familiar with the unit standards that they will be assessing
  • Be familiar with and use the assessment guides
  • Plan the assessment, which includes the selection, design and implementation of assessment activities.”
  1. Providing feedback. The assessor is responsible for providing detailed feedback so that improvements can be made.

A moderator, on the other hand, is responsible for quality assurance in relation to the assessment process, so he or she will perform duties like:

  • Ensuring that assignments and tests are carried out correctly and fairly.
  • Handling the concerns of learners.
  • Evaluating the performance of an assessor.

If you are interested in gaining the skills you need to work as an assessor or moderator in a certain field, then studying an education course at Oxbridge Academy will be a good option for you. 

What are the ETQA requirements for moderation?

Once an accredited provider conducts assessment for purposes of awarding an INSETA accredited certificates using the approved learning programme, the provider must apply to the ETQA for external moderation on 10% of the total assessment conducted.

How does moderation link in with the NQF principles?

Moderation is the process which ensures that assessment of the outcomes described in the NQF standards and qualifications is fair, reliable, and valid. Moderator training course will equip learners with the required knowledge and skills to conduct moderation of outcomes-based assessment (internal or external).

What are pre assessment moderation requirements?

The moderation of an assessment task (pre-moderation) should focus on the following:

  • Technical criteria which may include instructions, layout, numbering, mark allocation, quality of illustrations, pictures, graphs, etc. Assessment task is aligned to the assessment criteria for the subject.

Moderation Plan

  1. All Training Providers are required to have Moderation Reports done once per quarter, four quarters in a year.
  2. As per SAQA, QCTO, SETA and ETQA requirements, a minimum of 10% Moderation must be done on all Learner Portfolios of Evidence. E.g., 100 learners that are completed and certified in one quarter, then a minimum of 10 portfolios must be moderated in that quarter.
  3. The Moderator must personally select the Portfolios for Moderation, using the visit. The Training Provider / Assessor may not under any circumstances select the Portfolios to be moderated. This is the case with on-site and off-site moderation.
  4. To manage the quality assurance for a new or existing training provider that utilises our moderation services, our services require you to be moderated every month for the first (3) three months to make sure the assessors are assessing according to the industry standard. Thereafter, if all assessments practices are satisfactory, then the normal moderation process will come into effect every quarter form there.

The Moderation types being conducted during a one-year cycle should include one of all three moderation process to offer you a professional service.

Recommended by Quality Assure and policy for quality assurance.

  • On-Site  
  • Off-Site  
  • Moderation during Training and assessment

Powers of the Moderator

It is important to understand that the Moderator is there to ensure that you are adhering to the requirements of the Unit Standards. The Moderator does not have the power to suspend you, or your company and they do not have the power to enforce their personal opinion. If you think that the Moderator is not being reasonable, please contact the SETA with your concerns.

Moderators’ responsibility

  • If the Assessors and or Training Provider are not adhering, co-operating, or refusing to adhere to the Unit Standards Criteria and SETA requirements, it’s our duty to inform the relevant SETA / ETQA’s of our findings.
  • If the company has an internal moderator, then this moderation must still be moderated by an external moderator to verify the authenticity of the assessment process.

Cost Guideline (This will vary depending on the training provider’s needs).

  • A fixed quarterly fee per quarter for this moderation service, paid for the quarter to secure your MoU and the moderation process.
  • If the unit standards are in-house training, or are not sold to the public, then a flat rate per quarter can be negotiated.
  • If the company needs additional moderation because of an increase of portfolios or irregularities, then according to Moderation policy, (An increase of moderation can be increased over and above the 10% per quarter), this to correct any serious problems that the assessor has made, then a cost per POE will come into effect.
  • However, we are open to negotiations, and or a monthly/ yearly retainer can be agreed upon to conduct our services without any disruptions. This is dependent on many factors, e.g., Travel, quantity of POE’s/ learners, training groups, professional advice on quality management for the company’s assessors etc. Please request a meeting to discuss these options.
  • An Optional Internal Verification inspection by the moderator can be done as a service for your company to prepare you for a formal verification visit by SETA; this will assist training providers in meeting the required verification criteria. This will prevent unwanted delays in your company’s accreditation.
  • During this inspection, a complete check of all relative items, professional advice offered, and a report offered at the end of the inspection.
  • Cost for this full verification on-site visit could be R2500.00, excluding travel and other costs incurred. This will include the first five (5) portfolios to be moderated.
  • Our service for new companies, a fee can be negotiated to assist you in registering your company for accreditation with SETA.
  • We also offer a formal QMS (Quality Management System) that is needed for any of the Seta’s accreditation. This is a generic QMS; it can be incorporated with your company’s details and the unit standards that you require accreditation for as a training provider with SETA.