Peer assessment tutorial

Introduction Rubric: Format Rubric: Reflection Rubric: Criteria Rubric: Links to policy Rubric: Enagement Observe an assessment Your turn Results

Your data

Tracking progress for .

Your answers and progress are recorded locally on this web browser and are not shared with SSSC.

Manage your data

Rubric: Format

The first thing you will check an evidence submission for is its format. The video below explains what to look for. Read the text and complete the practice assessments activity once you finish watching the video.

Download slides Download video

Video transcript

Slide 1: Title slide

No narration.

Slide 2: Video

The first thing we're going to examine about a submission is its format. This is important not just to us, because we need appropriate evidence to carry out an assessment, but to the learner. Because when they show their badge to someone, say three years in the future, the person who looks at needs to be able to follow the learner submitted evidence attached to it. If it doesn't make sense to them, is inaccessible or difficult to follow – then they won’t recognise the badge as valid.

Slide 3: Format

This is how the format factor appears on our rubric.

If a submission scores 'needs work' here, then the submission will be returned to the learner regardless of how they score elsewhere.

We need to make sure the learner provided us with something that is suitable for an Open Badge. It must contain enough evidence for us to assess, it needs to makes sense, there must be nothing in there that shouldn't be – like personal data or too much detail about real practice examples – and, ideally, it should be well structured using items from the badge criteria as headings.

This is not about spelling and grammar. We don’t care if someone has missed full stops from the end of every sentence or not used appropriate capitalisation. So long as we can understand what the person has submitted then it doesn't matter.

Let’s take a look at each of these in more in detail.

Slide 4: Format – needs work indicators

First of all, we need to check the evidence submitted is relevant to badge and makes sense. It's not uncommon for people to get mixed up and apply for the wrong badge – like submitting the evidence they prepared for the child develop badge to the writing evidence badge by accident. Or it may be the evidence submitted makes no sense whatsoever.

If we can't see the evidence, then that is obviously going to be a problem. The learner might have provided a link to website we cannot access, uploaded a file we can't open or not provided any evidence at all.

It's important we have enough evidence from the learner to assess, so the minimum word counts need to be met. If in doubt, you can get the word count by pasting the evidence into the assessment helper tool. Only the learner's own work can be counted, quotes or question headings from the criteria do not count towards this.

Confidentiality is important in badge evidence. Because the learner will be able to share what they have written with others, we need to make sure nobody can be identified. Unfortunately, this includes going into too much detail about real life practice – even if names have been removed.

If you suspect any of these indicators apply to the format of the evidence you are assessing, you should score it as 'needs work'.

Slide 5: Format – satisfactory indicators

Unsurprisingly, indicators of a satisfactory format are the opposite of what we just spoke about.

A submission that is clearly relevant to the badge, that we can open or view without problems, that meets that minimum word count, where supporting materials are provided if necessary and where there are no issues with confidentiality.

So, providing we have all the indicators of the satisfactory format, what should we look for to tell if the format is excellent?

Slide 6: Format – excellent indicators

Two things. And either of these should point you in the direction of scoring the format as 'excellent'.

If the learner has used the questions from the badge criteria as headings to structure their submission. This makes examining the evidence relatively easy and we should reward the learner for this.

If you feel what the learner submitted is particularly well presented or written - and it's up to your own judgement what this looks like – then you can score excellent for format – so long, of course, all the satisfactory indicators have been met as well.

Slide 7: Activity

I’ve prepared examples of real submissions for you to look at and you'll find instructions below this video.

First, look at each of them and decide how you would score them for format. Don't worry about getting it right at this stage, this is just a practice activity. Once you've done this, you'll see how an SSSC assessor scored the same submission along with their rationale for this and what feedback they’d give to the learner.

You should consider how your scores compare to the SSSC assessor and take a short note of what you learned from this activity in the reflection box below. Also, jot down any questions you have at the moment about format and I’ll show you where you can get these questions answered at the end of this workshop.

Slide 8: Thank you

No narration.

The format factor on the SSSC Open Badges rubric addresses the absolute basics someone needs to get right in their evidence submission.

As assessors we are looking for the submission to meet the minimum word count, be for the correct badge and not include any personally identifiable information about the applicant or anyone else.

You will be asked to choose between three options when assessing this factor; needs work, satisfactory and excellent. Below are a few indicators of what you should look for in making your decision.

Needs work indicators

Evidence submitted is irrelevant or for the wrong badge.
Evidence is inaccessible.
Minimum word count has not been met.
Any part of the evidence identifies the learner or someone else.

Satisfactory indicators

Evidence is accessible and relevant to the badge.
Minimum word counts for each question have been met.
Supporting documents (if required) have been supplied.
Nobody can be identified from the evidence provided.

Excellent indicators

Evidence submitted uses the badge criteria as headings.
Evidence is presented or written well.

Failing to achieve a satisfactory score here means the submission will be returned to the applicant for more work regardless of how they score elsewhere.

Now it is your turn to assess a few submissions and see how your scores compare to the original decision. Complete the activity below before moving on to the next factor.

Activity: Practice assessments

10 minutes

You are going to assess five examples of real submissions for the Writing evidence for Open Badge applications badge. Read through each and select how you score them for format. At the end of the activity, your scores will be compared to those of an SSSC assessor.

Continue