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Your guide to controlled assessment

What's new?
The QCDA has imposed the change from coursework to controlled assessment. The Single and Double awards both have a balance of 40% written examination and 60% controlled assessment. Controlled assessment provides greater structure than traditional coursework and allows students to demonstrate their skills and understanding more effectively than a more time-limited practical examination.

The main changes are:

Students must do the tasks they get marked on in 'controlled conditions', so we can be sure it is their own work.
Edexcel's controlled assessment is one 'task', split into four activities, each of which can be marked on completion.

What will students actually do?

Students must work to a set task called a Controlled Assessment Brief (CAB). This is an interactive digital publication, designed to be viewed onscreen. Students must submit digital evidence of their work for assessment and moderation.

In both units, the opening pages of the CAB set the context, give an overview of the requirements and encourage students to organise their work. On completion of the three activities, students are given a checklist to help ensure that they have all the required evidence in the correct folders. The final stage before submission is simply to create a single page with links to the evidence.

For unit 2, students develop and produce a range of digital publications. The three activities have a similar structure, requiring students to carry out research and information gathering, develop publications and review their work on the activity.

Unit 4 is an integrated task resulting in a single interactive digital product. This may be one of a number of different product types with the emphasis on the design and development of the product.

What are the controls?

The QCDA has broken controlled assessment down into three sections, and set levels of control for each section.

Task setting	Task Taking	task marking
Controls: High	Controls: Medium	Controls: Medium
Edexcel sets the task.	Informal supervision - work is completed under teacher supervision in the classroom.	The teacher marks the task and it is moderated by Edexcel.

Task setting: Edexcel must set the tasks (CABs), and a new task must be issued annually for each unit.

- New CABs for units 2 and 4 will be issued by Edexcel in May of the previous academic year. Students will always have a choice of two CABs for each unit and for unit 4 they will be able to focus on any one of the different product types.

Task taking: Most task taking must be carried out in controlled conditions.

- Research: Each of the three activities includes some information gathering which may be carried out without supevision, though teachers must be confident that it is the student's own work.

- Controlled environment: Apart from research, all work done on the CAB must be carried out under controlled conditions. This is not the same as an examination in that students do not have to work in silence, but the task must be formally supervised at all times. Students may bring in notes and the results of their research. You may offer feedback, but if you need to guide students along a particular path or advise them on how to approach part of the task, then you must take account of this when marking the work.

- Timing: Maximum suggested time allocation for the complete CAB is 40 hours. Students' work must be kept securely between sessions.

Task marking: Teachers mark the tasks using the level descriptions in the specification. Edexcel will ask for a sample of the work to moderate.

How will I assess the controlled assessment?

The assessment grids for the controlled assessments are included in the unit 2 and unit 4 content. The assessment uses a 'best fit' approach, matching students' work to the statements in the grids. The statements in the grids assume that students are working independently; you can therefore reflect the amount of guidance you have given to each student when you are awarding the marks.

We will provide you with plenty of help:

General notes on the use of the controlled assessment tasks
More specific advice will be provided with each task. This will include samples to make sure you can clearly see the standards.

Can students resit the controlled assessment?

Student will need to resit the whole controlled assessment. They cannot just add or amend previous submission.

How we're helping students to achieve their best

The context for each CAB will be sufficiently open-ended to allow students to carry out research and develop outcomes that interest them.
Each CAB will include supporting files and reminders to help students maximise achievement.
Each CAB will be issued with a set of detailed support notes to clarify the specific requirements of the task.
Students will be able to practise for the assessment using sample CABs, available on the Edexcel website.

Examples of student work with commentaries will be available to help students and teachers understand what standards are required.