ILM Assessment Service Policy V3 November 2017
Contents Document Change History 3 Scope 4 Definition 5 Centres Roles and Responsibilities 7 ILM Assessment Service Roles and Responsibilities 8 Using the ILM Assessment Service 9 ILM Assessment Service Step by Step Guide 9 Preventing Plagiarism 11 Process: plagiarism, collusion or cheating 12 Further Information 13 Continuous Improvement 15 Useful contacts 16 V3 November 2017 2 of 17
Document Change History Changes to specific sections of the document are listed below: Scope Page No Change 4 Removal of the acronym ILMA throughout the document Definitions Page No Change 5 Amendment of ILM Assessment Manager to Head of Assessment Centres roles and responsibilities Page No Change 7 This section has been enhanced ILMA Step-by-Step Guide Page No Change 9 This has been condensed to a 5 step process Preventing Plagiarism Page No Change 11 This section has been enhanced Process: plagiarism, collusion or cheating detected by an ILM Assessment Assessor Page No Change 12 Flow chart included Removal of ILM Assessment Manager V3 November 2017 3 of 17
Scope The purpose of this Policy is to ensure quality and consistency of the assessment service. This policy applies to prospective and existing ILM Centres who intend to use the ILM Assessment Service. This ILM policy provides: Guidance on the process for using the ILM Assessment Service The terms and conditions that apply when a Centre uses the ILM Assessment service. This policy should be read in conjunction with the contract of the ILM Customer Handbook. All Centres using the ILM Assessment service must adhere to this policy. This policy supersedes and replaces the ILM Assessment Service Policy V2 from September 2017. V3 November 2017 4 of 17
Definitions The ILM Assessment Service ILM Assessment works in partnership with ILM Business Development Managers (BDMs), Quality and Compliance Managers (QCMs), External Verifiers (EVs) and colleagues within ILM Operations and Product to deliver an integrated and customised assessment service to ILM Approved Centres. The service provides timely, reliable and consistent assessment feedback for a quality customer experience and improved leadership, management and coaching practice. This is achieved by: Working in partnership with the ILM Product team to ensure ILM qualifications and assessments support the achievement of improved leadership, management and coaching practice Working with ILM Assessment Service Centres to develop new and innovative assessments that are relevant, robust, dynamic and learner-centric Working with a team of appropriately-qualified and experienced assessors who are competent to undertake their roles and responsibilities Scheduling assessment activity to ensure compliance with ILM Assessment Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Ensuring pertinent ILM Assessment Service information is shared with BDMs and QCMs and integrated into the wider Quality Model and customer contact strategy Ensuring ILM Assessment Service results and the quality of assessments form part of the overall customer risk profile for a Centre. The Assessor The Assessor is appointed to use his or her expertise and competence to make a professional judgement as to whether or not assessments submitted by learners to the ILM Assessment Service meet ILM standards and to provide developmental feedback to learners on how they may improve their knowledge and skills based on the evidence seen. The Lead Assessor The Lead Assessor is appointed to undertake a quality assurance role within the ILM Assessment Service by sampling and standardising work undertaken by assessors and by supporting and providing feedback to assessors on an individual basis. Lead Assessors will also escalate any concerns over assessor performance to the ILM Assessment Team and provide Lead Assessor comment forms to Centres that require additional help and support with assessment. The Head of Assessment The Head of Assessment is appointed to lead a team of appropriately qualified and experienced assessors who are competent to undertake their roles and responsibilities, and to be the final arbiter in all ILM Assessment Service-related queries. V3 November 2017 5 of 17
The Assessment Coordinator The Assessment Co-Ordinator receives all assessments submitted to the ILM Assessment Service and arranges the marking of them by scheduling in assessment activity to ensure compliance with SLA, issues and claims results, and provides centres with general support in relation to the ILM Assessment Service. V3 November 2017 6 of 17
Centre Roles and Responsibilities When using the ILM Assessment service, you must ensure that you are conversant with your own plagiarism policy and with ILM s Plagiarism, Collusion and Cheating Policy. These policies must be discussed at a learner s induction to ensure that learners and potential learners are fully aware of both the centre and ILM s expectations. To ensure compliance with the policies, it is good practice to reiterate salient points to learners during the programme delivery. Centre staff must be conversant with the assessment criteria, learning outcomes and the knowledge and skills that are being tested for each ILM qualification it delivers. Centres need to ensure that adequate tutorial support is provided and relevant feedback given to learners prior to the submission of assessments to ILM for marking. The contractual arrangements in place between ILM and a centre can be found in the centre of the Customer Handbook and defines the relationship between a centre and ILM. ILM does not have a direct relationship with learners and therefore will not provide results directly to learners. Once ILM has notified you of learner results, it is your responsibility to ensure that you inform learners of results in a timely manner. It is important to note that use of the ILM Assessment Service does not absolve Centres of their responsibilities to learners, i.e. ILM Assessment Service Centres are still required to provide advice and guidance to learners, including tutorial support. Centres must also review all assessments prior to submission to the ILM Assessment Service to ensure the assessment is complete and ready for marking and that all relevant documentation is signed and in place. The centre and learner must confirm authenticity of each submission and resubmission. If a submission is made without a fully signed authenticity declaration ILM will commence a Malpractice investigation and the Centre will be informed. Full details on the Malpractice process can be found within the ILM Malpractice and Maladministration Policy on the ILM website. V3 November 2017 7 of 17
ILM Assessment Service Roles and Responsibilities The ILM Assessment service will: Mark and quality assure learner assessments Provide timely, reliable and consistent feedback on each learner s result sheet Schedule assessment activity to ensure assessments are returned to Centres within the 25 working day SLA Enter results onto the ILM Walled Garden Provide Lead Assessor advice to Centres that are not attaining the required standard. The ILM Assessment service will not: Provide statistical information about a Centre s individual pass or referral rates for submissions to the service, nor will we provide detailed developmental feedback as part of the ILM Assessment service. You are responsible for collating statistical information that pertains to your Centre and your learners Review assessments on behalf of Centres to ensure their compliance with the step-by-step guide as described in this policy Correct Centre errors that have arisen through not following the step-by-step guide, such as incorrect file naming, incorrect learner ENR number, incorrect unit titles or reference numbers, etc. Retain Centre individual unit results until such time as the full qualification is completed Accept partially-completed assessments Accept alternative assessments that have not been approved by a QCM Negotiate faster assessment turnaround times with Centres Discuss individual learner results with Centres Download assessments from a Centre s own system. V3 November 2017 8 of 17
Using the ILM Assessment Service ILM has produced a step-by-step guide, which can be found on the following page of this policy. It provides information on how to use the ILM Assessment service and should be read along with the below additional information. When registering learners you must ensure that they are registered on the relevant ILM Assessment codes and not the centre assessment code as this could significantly delay your ability to use the ILM Assessment service. You must ensure that all information that a learner wishes to be included in their submission is present at the point of submitting as ILM may decide to return any incomplete submissions. Should the submitted script be marked, it will be marked as it has been submitted, which may result in a referral outcome. Please note that re-submission charges apply. Should an assessment be submitted for marking that is presented without a declaration of authenticity, learners name, ENR number or with missing or incorrect unit numbers ILM will return this to you unmarked. If you plan to submit in excess of 50 scripts at any one time, please inform ILMassessment@i-l-m.com prior to submission, as this will help us remain within the service level agreements that can be found in the step-by-step guide. ILM Assessment Service Step by Step Guide The following guide is provided to make the ILM Assessment Service process as easy as possible for Centres to use, and includes Terms and Conditions for using the ILM Assessment Service. 1. Set up the ILM Assessment Service on your ILM Walled Garden account Email our Customer Service Team at customer@i-l-m.com with the list of qualifications you would like us to assess (you must already have ILM approval to offer these qualifications). If you do not have ILM approval for these please contact your Quality and Compliance Manager first. Once approval is granted, we will then process your request and the relevant codes will appear in your Centre catalogue in the Walled Garden. 2. Register your learners through Walled Garden using the relevant ILM Assessment Service codes Register your learners through Walled Garden using the relevant ILM Assessment codes. Once registration is completed, you will be contacted by one of the ILM Assessment Team to talk you through how the service works, set you up an account for the ILM Assessment Portal, confirm which units you are delivering, and answer any queries you may have. Should you need to create a user account for any other individuals within your Centre for the ILM Assessment Portal please contact the ILM Assessment team, as each person should have their own log-in for security purposes. V3 November 2017 9 of 17
3. Start delivering your chosen ILM qualifications 4. Submit your candidates assessments When you have completed a set of assessments please upload the final versions of these onto the ILM Assessment Portal. Please note that you are required to adhere to the following terms and conditions: Submit completed assessments only; incomplete assessments will be returned and you may be charged The majority of assessments will be written and forwarded in Word or PDF format, although we do try to be as flexible as possible. If you wish to submit in another format, such as video, please contact us beforehand and we will make the necessary arrangements You must use the following file naming protocol: initial Surname Enrolment number (ENR) Centre No ILM Unit Product Code Submission Number (original = (1) or resubmission = (2)) for example: R Jones-ABC123-012345-8697-530(1) assessments that do not adhere to this protocol will be returned to the Centre and you may be charged Attach an ILM submission cover sheet to the front of every assessment along with the appropriate result sheet with the Centre and learner name completed. Make sure that the centre and each learner confirms authenticity (This also applies to resubmissions) Ensure all relevant documentation is uploaded with resubmissions as there is no guarantee that a resubmission will be assessed by the original assessor Ensure result sheets are submitted in a format that we can edit, i.e. in Word rather than JPEG or PDF. Please ensure that if you are uploading a resubmission that any additional work your candidate has provided is highlighted (This can be in bold or a different colour font). Should you require any assistance on using the ILM Assessment Portal please use the links below that will take you to our dedicated ILM Assessment Portal page: https://www.i-l-m.com/assessment-and-resources/ilm%20assessment%20portal Alternatively please contact one of the ILM Customer Service Team on 01543 266867 or email customer@i-l-m.com. 5. We mark and quality assure the assessments Our Assessors will mark the assessments and provide feedback onto the result sheets. After marking, assessments are forwarded to a Lead Assessor for quality assurance and finalising. There is no need for your ILM External Verifier to sample these assessments. This process takes 25 working days from receipt to return of results (This also applies to resubmissions.) Please note that you will receive your candidates results via the ILM Assessment Portal on your own dedicated tracker dashboard. V3 November 2017 10 of 17
Preventing Plagiarism You must ensure that none of your learners can unwittingly find themselves guilty of plagiarism without knowing the implications. It is essential that you explain to learners what plagiarism is, how you deal with it, the possible sanctions and how they should acknowledge someone else s work. This is commonly achieved through the obligatory programme induction and reinforced in assessment briefings and/or in tutorial support. Every learner must make a formal declaration of authenticity (i.e. the work is their own) for each assessment, which also needs to be signed by a member of Centre staff. Without a signed declaration of authenticity, there can be no grounds for plagiarism. However, such an omission by the centre would be considered as malpractice. Full details on the Malpractice process can be found within the Malpractice and Maladministration Policy on the ILM website. The following guidelines will be helpful for your learners: If you use someone else s exact words in your work, they must be in quotation marks. Use quotations sparingly and only when you feel the author has expressed something so well and so concisely that the words cannot be improved Even if you give your own explanation of somebody else s work without quoting word-for-word, you must reference your source When referencing a source, you must provide the name of the author, the date of their work that you have referred to and the page number where you got the quotation from immediately after the quotation (e.g. Hill, 2004, p. 42) and also provide full details of the reference in the reference list at the end You must provide a full reference list - a list of books, articles and any other sources you have quoted - at the end of your assessments The Harvard system for referencing sources is well-established and you can find guidance on how to use it on the internet When making a reference to a book the Harvard format is: Hill, P. (2004) Concepts of coaching: a guide for managers. ILM, London and for a reference to an article the Harvard format is: Grant, A.M. (2010) It takes time: a stages of change perspective on the adoption of workplace coaching skills. Journal of Change Management, 10(1), pp. 61-77. Further details and guidance on plagiarism could be found in the ILM Plagiarism, Collusion and Cheating Policy. V3 November 2017 11 of 17
Process: plagiarism, collusion or cheating detected by an ILM Assessment Service Assessor If an ILM Assessment Service assessor suspects plagiarism, collusion or cheating in a learner s assignment or script, they will check to confirm the learner(s) have signed declarations of authenticity and if they have report the allegation to the relevant ILM Lead Assessor. Once the assessor s findings have been verified the incident will be reported to the ILM Assessment Service, who will review the information that has been discovered, evaluate the findings and complete an internal investigation report. If plagiarism, collusion or cheating is evident the ILM Assessment Service will communicate this to the centre. No marks will be attributed to any piece of work under suspicion and the result sheet that includes the ILM comments will be returned to the centre. The ILM Assessment Service will submit the internal report and a copy of the result sheet to ILM s Regulation department by emailing ILMRegulation@i-l-m.com and also the centres Quality and Compliance Manager and External Verifier are notified. ILM Regulation may delegate the responsibility to investigate the allegation to a lead independent investigator or request a Head of Centre to undertake an investigation. The process below must then be followed. Plagiarism identified by ILM Assessment Service assessor Evidence reviewed by ILM Regulation & Action Plan set by ILM Quality & Compliance Manager to mitigate any further incidents Actions completed by the centre by the deadline given Report to ILM Assessment Service Investigation will be completed by the centre Quality and Compliance Manager reviews and sign off all actions ILM Assessment Service will return the results sheet to the centre ILM Assessment Services will inform ILM Regulation who will tmake contact with the centre V3 November 2017 12 of 17
Further Information If the referral rate for your centre is higher than the average ILM Assessment Service s monthly referral rate your allocated Quality and Compliance Manager (QCM) will contact you to ensure that you are fully aware of ILM s expectations for the delivery of a qualification. The QCM will seek assurance from you, which may include the application of an action plan to reassure ILM that you are delivering ILM qualifications in line with our requirements. When submitting an assessment to the ILM Assessment service by email, and not via the Portal, a copy of the assessments are stored securely on an internal drive in our IT system and then emailed to an Assessor for marking. Access to both the internal drive and to the email submission is only available to a limited number of ILM members of staff. All access is password protected and ILM has robust virus protection and firewalls in place to ensure security of information submitted to the service. The Assessor who will mark the assessment has an ILM email address, which is also password, protected. The procedure that the Assessor follows during the marking process can be found below: The Assessor saves the assessment to their personal computer to mark The Assessor emails the mark sheets and assessments to the Lead Assessor The Lead Assessor reviews both and sends to ILM via email. Although the Assessor saves the assessments to a personal computer, ILM has agreements in place with Assessors that includes strict confidentiality and data protection clauses. Assessments are retained indefinitely by ILM in line with the City and Guilds Group Document Retention Policy. V3 November 2017 13 of 17
About ILM ILM is the UK s leading provider of leadership, management and coaching qualifications, and a City & Guilds Group Business. ILM offers a specialist suite of qualifications ranging from Level 2 to Level 7, which are awarded by The City and Guilds of London Institute. ILM also specialise in assessment, learning content, and accreditation of training. We believe that great leaders can come from anywhere. With the right support, anyone can grow and develop to make a real difference to their team and organisation. Which is why we help individuals from all levels to realise and apply their potential, so that the organisations they work for can reap the benefits. City and Guild Group ILM is a City & Guilds Group Business. Together, we set the standard for professional and technical education and corporate learning and development around the world, helping people and organisations to develop their skills for personal and economic growth. V3 November 2017 14 of 17
Continuous Improvement The ILM Quality and Regulatory Group monitor this policy and any associated feedback and ensure that the ILM Standard is maintained to ensure our qualifications and programmes are accessible to all whilst maintaining quality in implementation. This policy shall be the subject of a three year review cycle or as necessary. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is true and correct at the time of going to press. However, ILM s products and services are subject to continuous development and improvement and the right is reserved to change products and services from time to time. ILM cannot accept liability for loss or damage arising from the use of information in this publication. We aim to improve our business processes and our response to customers in the light of learning from the feedback we receive. If you have a complaint, or any suggestions for improvement about any of the services that we provide, please email: customer@il-m.com V3 November 2017 15 of 17
Useful Contacts ILM Customer Service General enquiries Events enquiries International enquiries E: customer@i-l-m.com Complaints and feedback Complaints and feedback E: customer@i-l-m.com ILM Regulation and Compliance Reporting malpractice/maladministration Reporting incidents of plagiarism Lodging appeals E: ILMregulation@i-l-m.com ILM Assessment Lodging Enquiries Requests for Special Consideration Request for Access Arrangements E: ilmassessmentpolicy@i-l-m.com V3 November 2017 16 of 17
Copyright Published by ILM. ILM is a City & Guilds Group Business. The City and Guilds of London Institute. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Founded in 1878. Registered Charity in England and Wales 312832 and in Scotland SCO39578. The City and Guilds of London Institute. This content in this document is copyright The City and Guilds of London Institute [2017]. The content in this document, may not be copied, reproduced or distributed without the prior written consent of The City and Guilds of London Institute, except that: 1. candidates studying for an ILM or City & Guilds qualification may photocopy this document free of charge, for the purposes of personal study, when working towards an ILM or City & Guilds qualification 2. approved City & Guilds and/or ILM centres and providers may include a PDF version of this document on their internal intranets, provided that centre staff may only make copies of the document for the purpose of teaching candidates working towards an ILM branded or City & Guilds qualification The Standard Copying Conditions also apply and can be found on the City and Guilds of London Institute website http://www.cityandguilds.com/help/copyright ILM No 1 Newlands Court Attwood Road Burntwood WS7 3GF T +44 (0) 1543 266867 E customer@i-l-m.com www.i-l-m.com V3 November 2017 17 of 17