In its second Chief Regulator’s Report, Ofqual (the regulator of qualifications, exams and tests in England) identifies use of e-assessment technology as one of its six key suggestions for the longer-term approach to the qualifications and assessment system.
The report says:
Technology is second nature to today’s learners. They must be allowed to embrace its potential and maximise the new opportunities it provides for them to demonstrate their achievements. The use of ICT in assessment raises issues ofcentral concern to the regulator, but we must seek ways of dealing with the challenge rather than hiding from it.
The Regulator goes on to discuss, in depth, how and where technology could be used. Significantly, the Report makes it clear that by ‘e-assessment’, Ofqual means going well beyond solutions such as on-screen marking. What’s being discussed are approaches where:
…the learner responds to questions or tasks on a computer
Worth noting that this is an area where RM has already got considerable experience, most notably with the Key Stage 3 ICT test.
As you’d expect, the Regulator sets out pros and cons for the use of technology, and the Report isn’t a technologist’s charter. However, it has to be significant that so much air time is given to emerging uses for ICT – the direction of travel is clear, something that wasn’t lost on the Daily Mail.
Categories: News · UK policy