Access to HE Assessment & Moderation
Access courses are for people who wish to gain entry to Higher Education, but have not yet achieved the necessary entrance qualifications.
Assessments
As you complete each Module, you will be given Tutor Assessed Assignments to complete. These often take the form of a Practical Report and an Essay. These are used by your tutor to gauge your learning and recomend you for an award of Credits for the Module. You will receive the confirmation of recommended credit(s) for each Module when the written work has met the predefined criteria which are found within the Assessments.
You can download an example of the Assessments for a Module here:
Practical Report Assessment Example
Once you have completed an Assessment, you submit it to your tutor by post and also, for all Level 3 Assessments, upload the Assessment to your myDLC Account. Your tutor will provide you with feedback on your work, complete and uppoad a Mark Sheet to your myDLC Account.
Download these documents to view some example Mark Sheets:
Moderation
Because the Access Diplomas are part of the National Qualification Framework, they are moderated externally by the Open College North West Region (OCNNWR) to ensure consistent quality nationwide. Moderation takes place twice a year so when you complete the course, you will have to wait until the next moderation before the request for certification can be sent to OCNNWR. However, should you have concerns that your Diploma may not be certificated in time for entry onto your selected course in Higher Education, we can provide evidence for you to give to the admissions tutor.
Plagiarism - Important Note
All work for the Assessments and the Final Exam must be your own work. Although you are encouraged to directly quote other authors, quotes must be acknowledged. You must not take large chunks from books or the Internet and pass them off as your own words. If we have reason to believe that the work you are submitting is not your own, the College maintains the right to ask you to sit extra written examinations on all the work you have studied on the course. Failure to take the examinations or to pass them will result in you being withdrawn from the programme and no credits for any previous Modules taken will be awarded. Full details of what is acceptable and unacceptable can be found in the Course Handbook.
Examinations and Tutor Observed Assessments
HEI's like to see that students from access courses have had experience of traditional examinations and assessments, which have been observed by DLC tutors. This will generally be completed through a Skype call. All Skype calls are free but you will need to make sure that you have access to a microphone and camera so that your tutor will be able to observe you completing your examination. Observed assessments will be individually negotiated between your self and your tutor, they are however compulsory and are part of the requirements of Openawards for completing the course.
At least one of the Modules at Level 3 will be assessed through examination type questions, though all the subjects will be assessed directly by your tutor throughout the course. When completing examination type questions you will be given the examination by your tutor via your internet link, and then be given a specific time limit within which you will have to complete the essays and upload it onto mydlc. In this situation, you will be observed by your tutor via Skype completing the exam. There can be two types of examination 'open book' where you are allowed to use your own notes and 'closed book' where you will not be able to bring any materials into the examination with you. There are two policy documents associated with the tutor observed assessments:
The DLC student contact policy explains how your contact with your tutor will work and also how the observed assessments will be completed. The Extenuating Circumstances form will need to be completed if for any reason you have arranged a date with you tutor for either a resubmission of your work or a tutor observed assessment and you are unable to complete this on the date and time arranged.
Grading
Level 2 Modules are not Graded, they are simply awarded a PASS or a REFERRAL. Level 3 Modules are awarded grades of PASS, MERIT, DISTINCTION or a REFERRAL according to a set of Grade Descriptors provided by the Awarding Body. It is expected that you will make every effort to meet the criteria for a Module and you are required to complete and return a 'tick sheet' which helps you to check you have completed everything you need to. However, if you fail to meet the criteria for a pass, you are encouraged to resubmit your work and it is not graded at that point. Your tutor will give you guidance about any improvements that are necessary and when you resubmit your work it will be graded. If you still fail to achieve the criteria, you will have to complete another peice of work on a different topic within the Module.
Exemptions
You can claim exemption from certain parts of the Access Course if you already have relevant qualifications. Exemptions can also be called Accreditation for prior learning (APL). Any student who has claimed exemption from part of the course due to achieving previous qualifications (such as allowed GSCEs), must have submitted evidence of these prior to being put forward for Moderation such that the tutor can sign to verify they have seen it. Note that you may also be required to produce these Certificates when you enrol on your Higher Education Course. You can see how exemptions are shown on an Access Certificate here - Page 1, Page 2.
