3. Preparing markers
With large student numbers you will need to consider enlisting markers to carry the load. Here we will share with you some ideas to promote a consistent assessment experience for students across the marking team.
Tips from markers who have done Interactive Oral Assessments (IOAs):
- Cognitive load and energy: Maintaining focus during the IOA is important. It takes quite a bit of energy to be in front of students, take notes, ask probing questions and mark at the same time.
- Be realistic with scheduling: IOAs take a lot of cognitive energy. Consider allowing 15 minutes for the student IOA, then 15 minutes admin time to finalise the mark and feedback.
- Mark as you go: try to finish the marking before the next student arrives, as it’s difficult to remember everything about the session later.
- Schedule rest breaks: Every one to two hours, allow a rest break or catchup session of at least 15-30 minutes. After three hours, most people need a longer break.
- It gets easier the more you do: The cognitive load with the first few is high but the more you do, the easier it gets.
Students see this as their only chance to impress you,
so try to treat them all equally.
A teacher’s open, friendly, engaging demeanour helps reduce student anxiety and improve the flow of the conversation.
Everyone on the same page
As we have already emphasised it is key that you prepare your students for the IOA to reduce their anxiety and give them the best chance to demonstrate their true level in the conversational assessment of IOA. You will need to do the same with markers you have recruited to help you conduct the IOAs.
The rubric and scaffold
Make sure all assessors get early access to the rubric and, if possible, include them in the developmental stages of the rubric so that they ‘own’ it. Against the rubric you should have some sample questions for assessors to use to prompt students into extending on their knowledge if the conversation isn’t flowing.
The mock IOA video
If you have prepared your students by giving them an opportunity to observe and assess a mock IOA video, then it’s essential that your markers do something similar. You could organise a training session in which the markers work in pairs to assess the student in the mock IOA video and then have a whole team discussion to arrive at a consensus. This will assist in helping markers assess in a consistent way, thus boosting the reliability of marks.
Roles
If the markers have no experience of conducting an IOA before, organise to have them do some trial runs with a colleague, playing the roles of student and assessor. Maintaining a natural conversational tone, moderating your responses to students while mentally evaluating their performance takes some practice, so it is important that the time and resources be made available so that you feel confident the marking team are all on the same page.
Moderation
If possible, have the most experienced assessor run the first assessments and organise for other assessors to either sit in, or give assessors access to a range of recordings that have already been marked for moderation purposes.
IO Assessment 