Accessible Digital Assessment for Learners with Additional Support Needs

1. Accessible Digital Assessment for Learners with Additional Support Needs Paul Nisbet, CALL Scotland University of Edinburgh

2. CALL Scotland • Strategic Leadership • Pupil Assessment and Support • CPD and Training • Information and advice: books, guides, resources, videos, web site • Loan of assistive technology • Knowledge Transfer, research and development www.CALLScotland.org.uk

3. Real pupils, real challenges “Over the last 20 years the Centre has achieved an international reputation for its expertise, quality and depth of advice, and its innovative developments.” Professor Martyn Roebuck, Review of the CALL Centre, 2004

4. EXAMS!!

17. SQA Assessment Arrangements “Assessment arrangements allow candidates who are disabled and/or who have been identified as having additional support needs appropriate arrangements to access the assessment without compromising its integrity.” Introduction to Assessment Arrangements for Schools and Colleges SQA January 2010, revised June 2013

18. Research, Development and trial 2002 need for Digital Question Papers identified 2003-04 research into specification; development of papers 2004-05 evaluation in 6 schools 2005-06 pilot trials #1 - 31 students used digital papers in 105 examinations 2006-07 pilot trials #2 - 80 candidates used 490 digital papers in 200 examinations

19. Type of Assessment Arrangements requested, 2005

20. Disability/difficulty of candidates requiring Assessment Arrangements, 2005

21. SQA Digital Question Papers Read questions with text-to-speech Use on-screen drawing tools Type your answers Click to tick

22. Digital Answer Booklets • Only ‘Question and Answer’ papers (most Intermediate and National 5’s) have the red answer boxes • To answer most Higher and Advanced Higher papers use Digital Answer Booklets in PDF or Word. • Digital Answer booklets are downloaded and made available from SQA’s web site

23. Staff evaluations 2006 trials

24. Reduced accommodation “We had 2 rooms set up with double sized tables to allow a comfortable amount of room for laptop and papers. Each candidate was allocated a table which was the same for each exam. All tables were numbered and we made use of screen dividers which created a booth effect and cut down distractions and gave a certain amount of privacy in the small classroom. We had 9 candidates sitting the exam in digital format and 2 writing in the same room for the Standard Grade English exam.”

25. Pupils’ comments 2006 & 2007 I would prefer to have split screens so that I could see questions and tables together instead of having to refer to another page. Prefer it to using a scribe. Easier to give answers. Easy to do. You can see both the questions and the text at the same time. Enjoyed using it!

26. Pupils’ comments 2006 & 2007 Papers are simpler to use. You do not have to fiddle about with different papers. By switching windows, you can see both the question and the text at the same time. Because it is much easier to use than a reader

27. SQA Assessment Arrangements 2013 requests Requests for Assessment Arrangements made for 17,263 candidates (11.3% of candidates) Requests made for 61,680 entries (8.3% of all entries)

28. 2013 assessment arrangements

29. Digital Paper Requests 2008-13

30. Digital Question Papers 2008-2013

31. AA trends (number of requests)

32. AA trends (% of total requests)

33. Staff comments, 2010 • Increases candidates’ feelings of independence and control over their speed of progress. Helps with confidence to face next step, e.g. college, work. • Digital Papers provide an excellent opportunity for more able pupils with additional needs to work independently without a scribe. • Help cut down the number of readers/scribes and invigilators . . . a significant cost saving for the centre. • Use further in the future with the aim of completely replacing readers and scribes for some subject exams. • . . . very worthwhile – provide increased independence and a real sense of achievement which the ethos of Assessment for All would promote.

34. Staff comments, 2011 • The pupils selected for digital papers during this diet provided us with evidence that they could show their potential and complete their papers independently. They all felt satisfaction at being independent. • Our Academy has suffered a drastic cutback on SfL staff and this will have the knock on effect of making us work harder to have the pupils use Digital Papers instead of having a reader. • The pupils really like the independence the digital exams give them. It was also good to have the answer books. • This was the first time our centre had used digital exams. I was pleased by how easy, user friendly the process was. It was a great benefit to several of our students and we are going to develop the use of these further through the school.

35. Staff comments, 2012 • I enthusiastically endorse the use of digital papers for pupils with ASN -Specific learning difficulties with reading, writing, spelling. • We have used the CALL Centre website and materials to train staff via twilight courses. Now virtually every department in the school has one person trained, plus there are 2 classroom assistants and 2 ASN assistants who can now create digital prelims from Word documents using Adobe Professional which has been installed on computers . • There were still pupils in school who were more comfortable with Reader and Scribe this year because this is the method they were familiar with. However, I am encouraging most of ASN pupils to consider this method in the future. • This is our second year of using digital and I am convinced it is the way ahead. I have encouraged English Department to prepare S2 Close Reading Assessments in digital format so that this becomes the norm for pupils as they move through the school and undertake assessments. Science is also beginning to develop this method for pupils.

36. Staff comments, 2013 • Intending to direct more pupils towards digital papers as much as possible especially with readers / scribes not being permitted for the literacy element of Nat. 4 & 5. Pupils will require to be up to speed with alternatives to R / S. Intending to try and digitalise assessments within the lower school for training purposes. • I think the digital exam system is an excellent option for pupils with ASN and gives them more independence. • Digital exams are growing to a vast level, very difficult to manage the increased numbers, especially with IT crashes that happen on occasion. • I am hoping to switch to digital assessments for all learners with ASD, ADHD and dyslexia/dyslexic-type needs. It would be very helpful if assessment materials on the secure site for CfE courses were available in digital format.

37. Not a panacea! • Digital versions of paper assessments. • Some questions do not ‘translate’ particularly well to the screen. • Only ‘question and answer’ papers have answer boxes. • Options for drawing and for writing mathematical and scientific notation are limited. • Text-to-speech can’t read maths and science and makes occasional mis-pronunciations (but getting better …. )

38. What the customers want… • All papers to be in question-and-answer format with answer boxes. • All learners to be able to use DQPs (or online assessment). • A practical mechanism for completing maths and science papers digitally. • More computers, more staff, more money, free beer, peace on earth…

39. Free , cheap or already in schools = better access for all To use the papers: • Adobe Reader (free) • MS Office (in schools) To use text-to-speech: • Adobe Read Out Loud (free) • IvonaMiniReader (free) • Scottish computer voices (free from CALL www.TheScottishVoice.org.uk) To revise and practice: • Digital Past Papers from SQA

40. Partnership

41. Pride • SQA have provided DQPs since 2008… ... RUK boards will start this year • Scottish learners can use free high quality Scottish computer voices… … only FE/HE (not schools) in England have free English voices; there is a free Welsh language voice; no other nations make such provision)

42. Costs of readers/scribes 19,058 reader requests; 14,905 scribe requests ~ 36,000 individual exams ~ 54,000 hours Say average £20/hour for reader/scribe? = £1,080,000 Say £10/hour for invigilator? = £540,000 TOTAL = £1.62m in Scotland last year

43. Impact on practice

44. Narional Literacy Assessment “In relation to the National Literacy Units at all levels: • exemption from demonstrating any of the four assessed skills of reading, writing, listening or talking will not be a reasonable adjustment and • (ii) using human readers and scribes will not be reasonable adjustments where reading and writing abilities are being explicitly assessed.” http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/64702.html

45. Reasonable Adjustments “In order to minimise the disadvantage faced by some disabled learners in attaining the National Units in Literacy, the use of word processors and other assistive technologies such as screen readers, spell checkers or speech-recognition software would be acceptable as reasonable adjustments.” http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/64702.html

46. Does text-to-speech help reading? A 6th year pupil at Denny High in Falkirk was assessed using the Neale Analysis, reading with and without text-to-speech. Reading herself, her comprehension age was 6 years 9 months. With text-to-speech, it was over 13 years.

47. Curriculum for Excellence How can you be a: • Successful learner - if you can’t read books and learning materials? • Confident individual - if you depend on others to read to you, write for you or talk for you? • Responsible citizen - if you don’t have access to information? • An effective contributor - if you can’t speak, write or communicate?

48. Use ICT! Reliant on Readers? Stuck with Scribes? or Independent with ICT?