Articles

23. Review of Ofqual's E-Assessment Report

England's exam regulator, Ofqual, published a report in December 2020 discussing the remaining barriers to deploying e-assessment for England's school exams.

While keeping in scope, I detail some of the report omissions, and also which stakeholders that need to be engaged.

I also mention some of the 'unsaid' topics that need to be included, notably the power of headteachers, the removal of exam risk from school halls, and liberating school estate from paper storage.

22. Celebrating the E-Assessment Question Conference

I've written previously about the E-Assessment Question event and have enjoyed the event since its inception.

With the event being held virtually for the first time in 2020, the E-Assessment Association asked me to write an article, reflecting on the changes and how far the sector has come.

This article originally appeared on the e-Assessment Association website.

21. Finding a way to win - why does e-Assessment love Further Education?

The editor of FE News got in touch with me to write a by-line on e-assessment.

The effects of C-19 on the further education sector really brought home the endeavours and the pragmatism of the sector to deal with adversity.

Assessing vocational and technical skills has been made much easier, thanks to a bulging toolkit of proven solutions, but also the indefatigable, can-do spirit of the sector.

This article originally appeared in FE News June 15 2020.

20. The Comeback Kid: Is formative assessment back for good?

Formative assessment was given a lease of life at the turn of the century by e-assessment innovation.

Often seen as the 'country cousin' to summative assessment, a re-emergence of good formative practice is being witnessed.

But is it different to last time round? Where is the investment going? Is this where real change happens?

This blog originally appeared in the e-Assessment Association's Winter 2019 newsletter.

19. When university data gets uncomfortable

UK university admission uses a system established in 1961, based on grade guestimates and a 'personal statement' from the applicant.

With data from the application body (UCAS) showing flawed admission practices, the blog considers how better assessment tools can reduce the mis-match of student-to-course, improve student drop-out rates, and build trust with transparency in the whole process.

18. Chatting for better exams! The emergence of chatbots

I took a look at a chatbot developed by a UK college using IBM Watson.

This blog reflects and considers how chatbots and the voicefirst principle can impact exam creation, delivery and analysis.

17. Where did you get this? Remote proctoring and provenance

An increasing evidence and research base means that remote proctoring is rapidly gaining visibility.

With choice increasing, buyers need to be aware of provenance - where do the software and services come from?

16. Trust and confidence - are you being invigilated?

Exam invigilation is a critical function of preventing malpractice and securing the confidence in qualifications.

With increasing numbers and frequency of media stories regarding exam malpractice, the blog covers the issues and societal changes that remote proctoring attempts to address.

15. Enriching membership through learning

Having been a member of a number of professional bodies, I appreciate the need to keep members engaged.

Learning technology can help reach greater cohort numbers, not just with education progammes, but also with opportunities to leverage the membership's technical expertise.

14. Confidence is key to exam programmes

The BBC ran an exposé on the security qualifications sector, which shone a light on the 'shrugged shoulders' atitude towards exam malpractice.

On reflection, I should have dived deeper on the use of outside contractors to invigilate school exams - a subject that deserves deeper exploration.

13. Using CRM to boost membership organisations

Many organisations that run education programmes rely on their members for raising profile, funding and evangelising the organisation's mission.

This blog mentions the integration of data bridges/ apps to a CRM for delivering a better, engaged membership.

12. Accredit When Ready

While mentioning open badging, this is more about the ability of qualifications to keep pace with rapidly-changing workplace demands within industry.

Peer-review of skills using technology in a manner akin to Trip Advisor, AirBnB and eBay, is worthy of further exploration.

11. Stop that cheat!

One of the better blog titles, but some serious points on how exam currency affects public confidence.

I make practical suggestions on how to maintain the confidence using technology and some good practices.

10. Exam Results Day

Written for the school exam results season, I call for using proven, existing edtech to shorten exam result turnaround time.

Using baseline stats from the Scottish Highers/ Baccalaureate, I give a three-step plan for improving the time from last exam to results turnaround: 47 working days to 20.

There's a larger blog to be written around the university application system and how the adminstration for A Levels/ Highers reinforces some long-standing issues.

9. Educause

I worked a couple of events in the USA during 2015, including Educause.

This event review reflects on how UK education, technology and engineering excellence (an iconic Indy 500 winning car) is celebrated in the USA, but goes unheralded back home.

At that time, evidence-based assessment for community colleges, and Obama's public backing of apprenticeships, were the key talking points.

8. Centre Readiness for eAssessment

The regulators of General/ school exams in the UK outside of England published a report on school and centre readiness for eAssessment.

Staff training and centre bandwidth were called out as key themes. It's often forgotten that for portfolio, evidence-based qualifications, the upload/ contention capabilities of the internet pipe is just as important as the celebrated download speed.

I also speculate on whether new 'free' schools in England would design technology in from the start, similiar to what has happened in the GCC Middle East education system.

7. Dimbleby Lecture - DotEveryone

Watching the lecture on BBC iPlayer, I couldn't help but feel frustrated by the waste of public funds/ airtime, and seeing what some commentators call a 'chumocracy' in action.

The Register wrote a very scathing article afterwards about this.

I checked back two years later on what DotEveryone was doing. Their 2016 annual report claimed that the North-East and North-West programmes (we're presuming they are referring to England) would take too long to implement, so ambitions were scaled back to 'London-only'.

Dot Everyone was folded into the Go-On charity, funded by 10 corporates, in May 2017, but still uses the trading name.

6. Assessment Security

Written after a BBC investigation into the compromising of the international TOEIC test in the UK. I call out six key points and some suggestions on how to manage the issues.

There's an interesting dichotomy which doesn't really apply to UK General school exams, but is pertinent to global education programmes:

"Exam sponsors want more coverage and volume, placing pressure on delivery companies to do it cheaper with an ‘acceptable’ level of quality. Candidates want to engage with a fair and just exam system, which is credible, but accessible."

5. Dual-Sourcing of Exam Programmes

I couldn't find any articles or blogs about dual-sourcing in edtech, as it's relatively unspoken about.

Having two suppliers compete over the same service/ learners can lead to innovation, a keen price and more choice.

Alternatively, education programme owners don't always have the resources and expertise to manage multi-supplier arrangements that are fair, open and transparent.

4. eAssessment Question review

This is a comprehensive review of the eAssessment Question 2014 event that was written in a couple of hours on the train home.

One observation caught my eye while re-reading the blog:

"Many exam organisations steer away from having a light shone upon their exam development."

Still true today.

3. Video Items in eAssessment - what happened?

Commonly used in formative eAssessment and eLearning programmes, I call out five barriers for using video in summative eAssessment.

The conflict of rising consumer expectations of video quality and scarce exam board experience in designing exam items that utilise video (compared to gaming companies) is still prevalent today.

The demographic and commercial gap between video gaming and exam boards has now grown inexorably.

2. Internationalisation of eAssessment programmes

The off-shoring of elements in the learning and assessment development process is fascinating. I draw parallels with the car industry where R&D is performed in the location where the brand is recognised (e.g. Turin for Fiat) and production/ assembly is done elsewhere.

Breaking out courseware or exam question production into separate component parts to build scale (maybe reduce malpractice) is still in the future.

Software development for eLearning and eAssessment tools has already witnessed much of this activity.

1. Learning Technologies 2012

Prior to working the Learning Technologies event, I noted the 'race-to-the-floor' in the commoditisation of Virtual Learning Environments and the focus on savings.

I consider the point that the Learning Technologies sector may actually be recession-proof.

The tone is reflective of the global recession at that time, looking at raw savings and asset sweating.