Assessment is a critical issue for post-16, higher education (HE) and the wider education community and is recognised within the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) unified e-learning strategy as fundamental to its success and as an important factor in delivering the new proposals. JISC recognised the importance of e-assessment for the UK education and research community in the late 1990’s as part of the groundbreaking work on Managed Learning Environments and work on standards. JISC realises that it has an important role to play through its work in this area. As more software suppliers and developers become involved in producing assessment products, so JISC is bringing the issues associated with this increasingly complex area to the attention of the communities that it serves.
A series of outputs from JISC have mapped the e-assessment domain for developers, managers and practitioners in further and higher education to clarify and illustrate the key terms, issues and achievements in this field. Information is given below about each of these important contributions to a wider understanding of e-assessment.
e-Assessment glossary
QCA and JISC have undertaken a study to review the terminology used in the field of e-assessment
Who is it for?
The glossary of terms has been produced for use by awarding bodies, teachers, lecturers, practitioners and administrators across all types of educational institutions and across all sectors, as well as software developers and providers.
The development process
The review process initially involved undertaking a desk review of commonly used terminology within e-assessment. This was then defined in consultation with representatives from across all the educational sectors. Experts in the field of e-assessment then undertook a further detailed review.
The first edition
The e-Assessment glossary looks at the processes involved during the design, presentation and recording of candidate’s e-responses to assessment stimuli. As a first edition, this is a work in progress, which will periodically be reviewed and updated. However, it can be used to stimulate debate about how terms should be defined and is available in a short and an extended version.
The e-Assessment glossary is comprehensive but it does not contain highly specialised ICT or psychometric terms. The range of terms identified in this review are words that are commonly used in e-assessment, including terms which refer to either complete or partial use of electronic processes to deliver examinations and assessments. It also includes a definition of e-assessment as ‘the use of electronic processes for registration of candidates to certification and also the end-to-end assessment processes from the perspective of learners, practitioners, school administrators, learning establishments, awarding bodies and members of the general public’.
e-Assessment glossary database
The Beta version of this database is available.
Next steps
This first edition of the e-Assessment glossary is the introductory phase of this project. JISC and the QCA intend to explore further issues raised by different constituencies in using the terminology as defined.
JISC and QCA welcome your views on the usefulness of the document, the relevance of the defined terms, and any suggestions for additions or improvement for the second edition. Please submit any comments on the e-Assessment glossary to: e-assessment@jiscmail.ac.uk
e-Framework and Tools
FREMA
The e-Framework and Tools strand of the e-Learning programme has funded the development of FREMA. The goal of FREMA is to develop a domain model for e-assessment systems that are built on top of service-oriented architectures, such as web services and the grid, and in particular the JISC e-Framework, to show how one or more service can be used to meet the described need. Some of the toolkit and demonstrator projects funded under this area of work focus on e-assessment.
e-Learning and Pedagogy
A roadmap for e-Assessment
The e-Learning and Pedagogy strand has funded the development of a ‘Roadmap for e-Assessment’ by The Open University. This report provides an overview of the current drivers and barriers to e-assessment in post-16 education, using a broad definition of the term ‘e-assessment’ to cover summative (or high stakes) assessment, formative (or low stakes) assessment and diagnostic assessment.
Case studies of innovative and effective practice in e-assessment
A series of case studies of current practice in e-assessment have also been produced by The Open University and the University of Derby.
See more information on both projects
Effective Practice with e-Assessment
'Effective Practice with e-Assessment' draws on the above projects to provide an overview of current technologies, policies and practice in e-assessment for the further and higher education sectors. A number of new case studies were researched for this publication.
Who is it for?
'Effective Practice with e-Assessment' will be of interest to those in further and higher education who manage, deliver or support educational practice involving e-assessment, including educational developers and technologists, e-learning managers, examinations officers and administrators and classroom practitioners.
Assuming a non-technical audience, its aim is to bridge the gap between the world of the tools and technical standards developer and those who manage, support or deliver e-learning and e-assessment, by illustrating how technical advances in this field are impacting on practice on the ground. Definitions of key terms are drawn from the JISC/QCA e-Assessment glossary to assist readers less familiar with the language of e-assessment.
'Effective Practice with e-Assessment' was launched at the 2007 JISC Conference. JISC welcomes your views on this new publication. Please submit any feedback to e-assessment@jiscmail.ac.uk
To order a copy
You can download a copy of the publication or order a printed copy
To view downloadable tool
To enable users to develop and adapt material contained in this publication, a 'Working towards effective practice' checklist for implementing effective practice with e-assessment, is available in Word format below.
Contact information |
Further information - See more information about QCA work in this area.
- See resources available for the assessment of learning from the Academy and JISC
- If you wish to join the e-assessment discussion list contact Dicky Maidment-Otlet
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