Horses for courses: Sessional staff participation in moderation processes at SOE

Quality assurance is a major agenda in tertiary education. The casualization of academic teaching and learning processes is a quality assurance issue. Casual or sessional staff members teach and assess more than 50% of all university courses in Australia. There is very little research in relation to the role that sessional staff play in assessment moderation processes. This pilot project reports the results of research into the role sessional staff play in moderation processes at a regional university and their feedback on the moderation processes in which they have participated. Qualitative data were gathered through focus interviews and surveys. Results were identified in terms of themes and based on the participant data. Results indicate that the moderation process was impacted by the nature of the course, specifically the number of casual tutors, the types of assessment tasks and the criteria sheets used to grade student work during moderation processes. The results suggest a ‘horses for courses’ approach be adopted in relation to moderation processes, that is the moderation process adopted in courses should be ‘tailored’ or ‘customised’ to fit the specific course