Use of technology to assist with assessment

1. Use of technology to assist with assessment develop your own knowledge and skills in specific areas of assessment develop your teams knowledge and skills keep up with recent developments

2. Use of technology to assist with assessment • On screen marking - from exam room to marker • Computerised test marking • multiple choice • short answer • extended answer • Digital pen • Revision - assisted note taking • Secure transmission of documents

3. Use of technology to assist with assessment Online and on-screen marking Over one million scripts to be marked online in 2007 No difference for candidates or centres From the exam room to your home computer Inside Edexcel: The e-revolution Education Show TV News Clip

4. Possible benefits and disadvantages of online marking Benefits Faster turnaround - interchanges of scripts between examiners are electronic better quality marking, through early detection and remediation of aberrant marking; random distribution of scripts and items to markers; specialisation of markers in a limited number of items; reduction of clerical errors, because the computer sums the marks; elimination of paper distribution; and greater security Reduced costs - no postage Real-time monitoring during the marking process

5. Possible benefits and disadvantages of online marking Disadvantages Some experienced assessors are uncomfortable with this new way of working Dependence on the central system and on assessors having high speed internet connections Reading on a computer screen can be awkward - and not everyone has the same quality of screen Little published research into the effects

6. Computerised test marking Multiple choice - currently tested Short answer questions - currently tested Extended answers - likely to be tested soon?

7. Computerised test marking Multiple choice questions Pro Instant results Accurate feedback against criteria Simple to administer Cheap (compared to examiners) On demand / on line Can be taken anywhere Con Restricts question types Feedback often meaningless Requires internet access Costly in technician time On demand still needs supervision Can be taken anywhere

8. Computerised marking of extended answers • Different from online marking - there is no direct human involvement in the process • Marking is carried out by software • One of two methods used • Software is written to pre-empt the likely answers • Software is based on the actual marking of human markers in previous tests

9. Can computers read English? • Evaluation of such services • save money • save teacher time • only as good as the programmer - but this is also true of human marking • learners can easily adapt writing to suit the software • use for extended writing could lead to very mechanical appraisals - there could be a problem with style

10. How would a computer mark writing? You could allocate marks like this: Sentence = Capital letter to full stop IF paragraph = simple sentences THEN score 1 IF paragraph = more complex sentence forms THEN score 2 but Ernest Hemingway would probably fail - even though he received a Nobel Prize for his writing. Style is very difficult to analyse

11. What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

12. What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

13. Style over substance? Has the work gone into the layout or into the question? Does the interface assist or confuse?

14. How is this different?

15. Digital pen LeapFrog Enterprises - aims new gadget at 8 - 14 year olds Writes in ink on special paper Pronounces words once written Touch the interactive pen any place on this interactive, talking globe and learn thousands of amazing facts. Compare population and land area between say Dundee, Scotland and Oaxaca, Mexico.

16. Digital pen Write various commands (for example, "tell me a joke") and have the pen oblige. Sketch a calculator and use the pen to solve basic math problems. Through so-called FlyTones, you can draw a simple piano keyboard, including flats and sharps, then play Do-Re-Mi (or whatever) by tapping various keys. What's more, by drawing a button next to the keyboard, you can change from piano to a flute, marimba, synthesizer or other instrument.

17. Digital pen • Fly Through Tests. • Students download to a home PC and print quizzes(onto interactive Fly paper) • Drawn from a database of 200,000 questions based on popular textbooks. • Choose the subject matter and level. • Fly tells you the answers you missed and how quickly you finished the exam.

18. Further research Security Can pens be easily substituted? Can the transceiver be hacked? Is data in transmission encrypted or open? Can material be loaded onto the pen during the examination? Practical How well does handwriting technology interface with the pen? Do candidates like this method of working? Access issues

19. Revision - assisted note taking Recall Plus - note-taking software - organises notes into graphics to suit the learning style of the user - generates areas for further revision based on number of times accessed (so why not add percentage of sample test questions answered correctly? etc)

20. Digital encryption Can be used to transmit test papers, answers etc Public key cryptography - same as used by banks Practically unbreakable codes - it would take the resources of the NSA or GCHQ to open one file

21. Tomorrow’s World Online learning as well as or instead of classroom learning Computer assisted revision Assessments generated on demand and to the needs of the individual No paper trail - all material transmitted electronically Instant feedback on assessment performance