Visual Arts Internal Assessment Upload: Quick Overview

It’s April!
That means for many of us its VISUAL ARTS UPLOAD MONTH!
Of the three components the most complex in terms of files and the upload process is the Exhibition
The aim of this post is to give some explanations and guidance in relation to the scary IBIS Internal Assessment upload process.
For more information about the visual arts upload please feel free to refer to my February post The Digital Upload: First Time For The New Course – What To Do!

Please also refer to the OCC. Some of what is posted here can be found in answers to questions posted on the OCC, so thanks go to the knowledge and wisdom of the 2 OCC gurus, Jayson Paterson and Hazel Gil-Salazar.

Before you upload

1 Check/confirm your marks, predicted grades & grade boundaries (“What Grade Boundaries?”)

BEST-FIT

When marking the exhibition use a best-fit approach. This might require some adjustment/compensation if the collection matches the same criterion at different levels. So for example, if technical competence is generally adequate (4–5) throughout but two pieces are much stronger (assured/effective, 7–8) the teacher/examiner might decide on a final mark of 6 for technical competence.

ASSESS THE FILES NOT THE ORIGINAL ARTWORKS

Use the same evidence as that available to the examiner who moderates the marking by referring to the digital, on-screen, version of the submitted work when marking the exhibition. This is important for the integrity of the moderation process.

GRADE BOUNDARIES?

You should base your grade predictions based on the work that your students have created and the general Group 6 Arts Grade descriptors.

This may seem rather vague, but the Grade boundaries for the new course do not yet exist. They will be determined after the first examination has been completed and all components have been marked.

(Senior examiners will recommend where the grade boundaries should fall based on how the marks rewarded reflect the grade descriptors.)

The Arts Grade descriptors are here:

2 Check for plagiarism/Academic Honesty in relation to the uploaded files!

If another person’s work, ideas or images have influenced any submitted artworks, the source must be included within the exhibition text, following the protocol of the referencing style chosen by the school.

This includes any image taken from the Internet and used as inspiration: this must be appropriately referenced in the exhibition text, and any artwork that refers to another artwork must include clear reference to the source of inspiration acknowledging its title, artist, date, medium (in the exhibition text).

Where students are appropriating/paying homage to/parodying etc another artist’s artwork, the exhibition text should acknowledge the original work and make explicit reference to the appropriation; mention of the appropriation process and relevant references can also be included in the curatorial rationale

(When in doubt examiners will refer the matter to the IB Academic Honesty team)

3 Check for GOOD quality image files!!

Check that the digital image files for all students are good enough to allow examiners to easily view and assess each artwork: the quality of the digital images should allow the examiners to zoom in and be able to view details of each artwork.

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT COMPONENT

Marks and supporting teacher statement

Teachers submit Internal Assessment marks (1 – 30, referring to the Exhibition assessment descriptors when awarding marks for the submitted files).
You will also justify and explain the marks awarded by referring to the Exhibition criteria in a supporting comment for those candidates selected. This comment has a fairly generous 4000 character maximum – but don’t feel that you HAVE to use all the available words. Examiners will prefer a concise and relevant comment rather than a lengthy descriptive account!
You are also expected to record the breakdown of marks for all candidates as you are required to enter these as well as the comment.
Examiners will refer to these during the moderation process.

The Exhibition Upload and the SAMPLE

Once you have submitted the IA marks and the overall grades (1-7) for all students, IBIS will generate a sample list of candidates for moderation purposes.
The sample will consist of the work that received highest and lowest marks you have awarded and a combination of the other marks.
Only the candidates selected (BY IBIS) in the sample will have their work uploaded.
These “Internal” predictions are subject to moderation, and therefore are only indicative of how you expect the students to perform. A moderator will review this sample to make sure the marks awarded are in line with the IB standards and relevant DP visual arts criteria

** Keep the rest on file somewhere handy because if there is some difficulty with the sample, the IB may require additional samples to be uploaded.

MINIMUM NUMBER OF ARTWORKS

For assessment criteria A, B, and C students who submit less than the minimum number of artworks (SL 4 and HL 8) cannot achieve a mark higher than 6.
So, even if your HL student uploads seven huge or incredible, outstanding artworks, the highest mark that will be awarded for each of these criteria is 6. This will obviously reduce the total mark of 30 for Internal Assessment. Make sure that your boys and girls at least submit the minimum number of artworks!

IT’S HOLISTIC!

But remember that the exhibition assessment in HOLISTIC!
The exhibition is assessed as a whole, considering holistically all the evidence presented, including the artworks, exhibition photographs, the curatorial rationale, and the exhibition text.
The visual arts guide states: “The final presentation of the work is assessed in the context of the presentation as a whole (including the accompanying text) by the teacher against the assessment criteria.” (p 51).

DATES and DEADLINES REMINDER (Predicted grades vs uploading IA files)

Teachers enter the marks for the IA component (Exhibition) and the Predicted Grades by the 10th April (10 October for November Session schools).
10 days later is the deadline for you to submit the sample (from the uploaded files for the Exhibition component) to IBIS (20th April. 20 October for November Session schools). During these 10 days check student uploaded materials before submitting.

***My advice, however, is not to leave these uploads until the deadline. Earlier is good.

Good luck!