Guidance

E-assessment / Errata: Guide to the data submission process

Published 19 March 2021

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

We collect the data on behalf of CCEA Regulation and share this data with them.

What data will be collected?

E-assessment / errata data will be collected for GCSE, AS and A level.

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

General completion guidelines

• Numeric values must not have any formatting
• Question paper (QP) is defined as: any written timetabled examination paper
• Supporting materials are defined as: any materials that accompany the examination paper, for example, resource booklets, CDs, materials for language orals. For language orals, any booklet providing instructions to teachers/centres is counted as supporting materials. However, candidate language oral cards should be recorded under NEA.
• Non examined assessments (NEA) are defined as: Any type of assessment that is not externally set and taken by candidates at the same time under controlled conditions, for example, coursework, practicals, orals, etc.
• Errata and errors captured in fields 15 and 16 (see page 6), should be at paper level. So even if a paper had 3 separate errata notices issued, a figure of 1 would be expected, not 3. These are binary fields indicating whether the paper had one or more errata notices issued, or one or more errors identified after the exam started. The only time these fields will have anything other than a 1 or a 0, will be for rows of data relating to modified papers

• For example, field 13 could have a value of 10 for rows of data relating to modified papers. This indicates that 10 different modified versions were created. There could be a scenario where 4 of the 10 different modified versions had errata notices issued, which would then lead to a value of 4 being entered into field 15

• For rows of data relating to modified papers, fields 14, 15 and 16 should total up to the value in field 13

• Online is defined as assessments taken with a live connection to the web and awarding organisations online assessment systems. On-screen is defined as assessments taken without a live connection

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ExamSeries	Exam series data relates to for example June 2023	1	^(June)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded. Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd	2	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted
QAN	Qualification Accreditation Number for example 123/1234/1	4	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted
SpecificationTitle	Specification title also known as subject title	5	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted
SpecificationCode	Specification code	6	^.{1,7}$	1 to 7 characters accepted
CertificationCode	Entry or option code to which candidates certificate	7	^.{1,7}$	1 to 7 characters accepted
QualificationLevel	Level of qualification for example GCSE	8	^(GCSE|AS|A level)$	Accepted values: GCSE AS A level
UnitOrComponentCode	Unit or component identifier	9	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted
UnitOrComponentTitle	Unit or component title	10	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted
AssessmentMaterialsType	To indicate type of assessment material, for example question paper, supporting materials, NEA	11	^(QP|Supporting materials|NEA)$	Accepted values: QP Supporting materials NEA
DeliveryType	To indicate the type of delivery for each of the assessment materials, e.g. Standard QP, Modified QP, etc.	12	^(Standard|Modified|Online|On-screen)$	Accepted values: Standard Modified Online On-screen
TotalNoOfVersionsPerDeliveryType	To indicate number of versions per delivery type	13	^\d{1,3}$	A numeric value between 0 and 999 accepted.
IssuedFreeFromError	To indicate if paper, supporting materials, etc. issued without error	14	^\d{1,3}$	A numeric value between 0 and 999 accepted
ErrataIssuedBeforeStartOfExam	To indicate if an errata notice was issued	15	^\d{1,3}$	A numeric value between 0 and 999 accepted
ErrorIdentifiedAfterExamStart	To indicate if an error was identified after the assessment had started	16	^\d{1,3}$	A numeric value between 0 and 999 accepted
ErrorIntroducedByCentre	To indicate if error was introduced by centre during modification process 0 equals no, 1 equals yes	17	^([0|1|-2)$	Accepted values: 0 equals no 1 equals yes -2 equals not applicable
NumberOfCandidates	To indicate number of candidates taking delivery type specified	18	^\d{1,7}$	A numeric value between 0 and 9,999,999 accepted

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk