Defining+moderation+and+validation

Moderation
Moderation is a process that ensures the same assessment judgements and standards are applied to all assessment results within the same units of competency. It is an active process in the sense that adjustments to assessor judgements are made to overcome differences in the difficulty of the tool and/or the severity of judgements.

Validation
According to the National Quality Council, validation is a quality review process that involves checking if an assessment tool produces valid, reliable, sufficient, current and authentic evidence to enable reasonable judgements to be made as to whether the requirements of the relevant aspects of the training package or accredited course have been met. Validation includes reviewing and making recommendations designed to improve an assessment tool, process and/or outcomes.

Validation versus moderation
Validation and moderation are similar but have distinctive features:
 * ~ **Validation** ||~ **Moderation** ||
 * * Validation is concerned with quality review. || * Moderation is concerned with quality control. ||
 * * Validation is concerned with continuous improvement of assessment practices and outlines. || * Moderation is concerned with help to achieve comparability of standards across organisations. ||
 * * Validation and moderation can both focus on assessment tools but moderation requires access to judged (or scored) candidate evidence. This is only desirable for validation. ||
 * * Both consensus and external approaches to validation and moderation are possible. Moderation can also be based upon statistical procedures whilst validation can include less formal arrangements such as assessor partnerships. ||
 * * The outcomes of validation are in terms of recommendations for future improvement to the assessment tools and/or processes. || * The outcomes of moderation may also include making adjustments to assessor judgements to bring standards into alignment, where determined necessary. ||

Resources
Australian Quality Training Framework: //AQTF users guide to the essential conditions and standards for continuing registration// National Quality Council: //Code of professional practice for validation and moderation//: These resources provide more information about the validation and moderation processes.

Source
TVET Australia National Quality Council 2009, //Implementation guide: Validation and moderation//