QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority – but now QCDA) originally had high hopes  for the involvement of e-assessment in high-stakes, summative assessments like A levels. As we head towards Autumn 2009, there is little evidence of this, as highlighted in a recent Guardian article. Whilst the use of various technologies for formative assessment seems to be expanding (see RSC Wales blog of Nov, 2008), take-up of e-assessment for summative purposes in schools and colleges is mainly restricted to  certain GCSE subjects (eg. Science, AQA), and courses on basic and vocational skills (eg. GOLA).
The only technology-enabled A level examinations I’m aware of (but I’m happy to be corrected!) are run by the Welsh examination board WJEC (there have also been trials of onscreen assessment in some IB examinations (ie. International Baccalaureate). This summer, WJEC ran online examinations in 25 centres for two A level subjects – Applied Business and ICT –through the medium of Welsh as well as English ( the bilingual aspect is significant, since Welsh-language versions of questions tend to take up more space than their English counterparts, which may create issues of formatting).
There are many reasons why A levels remain largely paper-based, not least the cost of equipping institutions with the necessary technology and support. There are also good reasons why examination boards should look further at e-assessment – for example, the value of multimedia and interactivity for learners, and ease of marking for examiners. They might start with internally-assessed components (eg. course-work, science practicals, extended essays etc), and make use of technologies such as e-portfolios . This would extend the range of evidence that could be examined (eg. images, audio, blogs), and provide far more flexibility for internal and external moderation.

 A recent conference at the University of Cranfield (25-26 Nov) highlighted some of the key current activities in e-assessment. Formative assessment plays a major role in the ways in which online or onscreen assessment is used both in HE (eg. German at University of Warwick), and FE/pre-16 (eg. ‘SCHOLAR’ programme – see blog post of 15.10.08). Feedback is highly significant – immediate, high-quality feedback is highly valued by learners, and students are generally very happy to engage in well-structured interactive onscreen questions. Question-authoring can be quite an art, and in HE in particular, commercial enterprises such as Questionmark Perception are prominent especially where assessment is summative and/or high-stakes (ie. leading to a key qualification). However, there are plenty of open-source alternatives, and the possibilities of the ‘Quiz’ block in Moodle were mentioned several times (particularly as the OU are developing this further using OpenMark). It was agreed that investing time to train teachers/lecturers in question-authoring techniques pays dividends in terms of time saved in marking and in the consistency and flexibility of assessment.

The use of the internet offers lots of other assessment options, of course eg. wikis, blogs, but these did not receive much coverage at this event.

Many of the participants at the conference, and many key case studies, are mentioned within JISC’s ‘Effective Practice with e-Assessment’

‘SCHOLAR‘ is an online programme in Science, Mathematics and Business for schools/colleges developed at Heriott-Watt University in Edinburgh.  There is an emphasis on interactive online learning with a significant formative e-assessment component, and the progamme has also involved extensive CPD training for classroom teachers.  Every secondary school in Scotland subscribes to SCHOLAR to supplement their ‘Higher’ qualification programmes, and there is also online support material available for OCR A/AS Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Computing, Maths and Physics.

A free seminar on the SCHOLAR  project will take place on 5 November at 3 pm at Swansea University (Faraday Lecture Theatre A, Faraday Building) with Emeritus Professor Cliff Beevers (Chair of the e-Assessment Association) and Professor Phil John (Chair, SCHOLAR Forum), Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)as key speakers. If you would like to attend, please contact Jane Barham in the Mathematics Department: j.d.barham@swansea.ac.uk