2023 Winners
The e-Assessment Awards Winners and Finalists
We are delighted to present the finalists and winners of the 2023 e-Assessment Awards.
Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project Award
Sponsored by City & Guilds
Winner: TCS Elevate Assessments - Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project Award
Tata Consultancy Services
For a high-performing enterprise like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), our empowered employees are our most valuable assets. For it is they who deliver business transformations to us and our customers. In such a scenario, there is a constant need to find a way to continually assess our employees’ capabilities to deliver these Transformational engagements. For the scale at which TCS operates, traditional SME-driven assessments for talent spotting are impracticable. We needed an assessment ecosystem that integrates objective, Business scenario-based, and coding evaluations. After experimenting with multiple models, TCS successfully brought forth an integrated assessment ecosystem that combines technological capabilities, built in-house and imbibed from partners, to provide insights into the associates' current skills and assesses their readiness to apply the acquired technical knowledge to Business Scenarios. This ecosystem, specifically curated to spot the right talent for the right roles at the right time, enables accelerated careers for our employees while baselining their skills and ensuring they build a continual learning culture and a culture of ‘Learning by Doing.’ This ecosystem has allowed TCS to upskill >600K employees (FY23) on market-relevant skills while ensuring 25% (FY23) of its fulfilments have happened internally via learned associates, thereby reducing hiring.
Finalists
Assessor-led, all in one system - Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project Award
Achieve+Partners and Eintech
Awarding Body and End-point Assessment organisation Achieve+Partners, and e-learning/e-assessment tech business Eintech, have come together in a truly collaborative partnership to deliver a unique assessor-led system. Apprenticeships require a high-stakes assessment, which until now has been a complex process from booking through testing, marking, grading, data storage and quality assurance. What used to take days can now all be done in one place with a few clicks, can be carried out live in the workplace, and the assessor doesn’t need to be a tech expert to do it.
Using ACJ to nurture talent in corporate finance. - Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project Award
RM
Amplify Trading was founded in 2009 to develop traders equipped to perform in the new era of global markets. Using technology to bridge the gap between theory and practice, their innovative approach to capital markets training is now used by many of the world’s largest financial firms to find and develop their next market leaders. Amplify Trading wanted to develop a new Corporate Finance Simulation product to serve the growing Mergers and Acquisitions market. Traditional assessment techniques lacked what was needed to properly identify underlying skills and competencies in this highly competitive and demanding domain. Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) provided a unique assessment approach which encouraged diverse responses and allowed for holistic consideration. It also enabled and encouraged peer assessment as another talent identification opportunity. Amplify Trading partnered with Assessment from RM and its ACJ product, RM Compare. This ground-breaking collaboration has produced an innovative solution to a unique problem, namely the rigorous judging and ranking of subjective candidate pitch deck. In doing so it has been used successfully by a number of world leading financial institutions and premier university business schools to successfully identify and nurture early career talent.
Identifying & Resolving Off-shore Risks for Shipping Companies - Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project Award
Keelson Marine Assurance and TestReach
Based in Texas, Keelson Marine Assurance provides consultancy including expert witness services to the shipping industry, and specifically services for Dynamic Positioning (DP). Offshore oil and wind industries use DP to facilitate drilling, dive support and personnel transfer. A failure in DP can cause a ship to lose position or heading which can be hazardous to people, the environment and be costly to rectify. Lack of knowledge among crews often contributes to incidents. Keelson’s CPD programme allows ship crews to take an online test, usually onboard, and receive a report summarising performance mapped against key subject areas, with guidance on areas to improve. A second test is taken to show if / where knowledge has improved. By integrating the assessment for learning into the physical workplace environment, the ship, candidates are in the right context to apply that learning. TestReach ensures all topics and learning pathways are included appropriately in randomised papers, and assessments can be accessed according to shipping schedules and at any location. The programme generates powerful data, allowing granular analysis between ship roles, vessels and locations, which now influences industry-level decision making. The programme has positively impacted employee engagement, enhanced safety offshore and contributes to vessel up-time.
Best Transformational Project Award
Sponsored by RM
Winner: BCU Hybrid Model - Best Transformational Project Award
Birmingham City University
Post pandemic, universities across the world faced a difficult decision. Should they return to traditional exams or continue on their journey of digital assessment? Faced with this choice, Birmingham City University, and the Digital Assessment Centre Team decided to implement a new learning model using digital technology, building on everything that had come before. Based on students voicing their ideal learning methods, we believed a new approach was necessary to create an inclusive and positive experience for as many students as possible. We took the innovative approach to combining traditional examination with remote digital assessment, creating the Hybrid Model. We rejected paper-based exams and focused on progressing our digital assessment strategy while enabling students to take their exams on campus if preferred This model offers the students the choice of taking their exam from home, or on campus, with all students taking their exam concurrently on the same digital assessment software. This unique approach allows students to choose their own mode of assessment, increasing engagement and student satisfaction. This has transformed the approach to all exams across the institution.
Finalists
NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) - Best Transformational Project Award
Televic Education
NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters), provides professional Certification of Translators and Interpreters, in Australia. The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruption to NAATI’s language, translation and interpreting exams, which had been delivered onsite/offline, with low-tech tools, for the past 43 years. The pandemic prohibited access to exam centres and in-person invigilation, which resulted in huge challenges for NAATI. Switching to a digital examination solution (assessmentQ from Televic), meant NAATI could transform and scale-up delivery of exams and certification across Australia and neighbouring regions, enabling tests to be organised remotely in an efficient and secure (proctored) environment. Alongside the core assessment platform to create, publish and deliver the exams online, Televic implemented specific question types and custom developments to solve challenges of delivering the core NAATI exams online, Within 12 months, 22,000 candidates took the core NAATI Exams online in 50 languages. Today, the digital assessment transformation is deeply rooted in NAATI’s culture and has become a permanent change, for both organisers and candidates, as NAATI continues to grow and sustain its strategy to eventually deliver all its exams online.
Best Research Award
Sponsored by TCS iON
Winner: Self-assessment guide for English teachers in Brazil - Best Research Award
State University of Londrina
In recent years, with the increase in research on the assessment of and for language learning by children, there has been an urgent need to deepen studies related to teacher literacy in this area. Likewise, understanding formative assessment as an effective way to develop student learning, we sought to study the contributions of self-assessment in this context. As a way to reach as many English teachers as possible in Brazil, we decided to develop an ebook entitled “Self-assessment for kids learning English: a theoretical-practical guide for teachers” with the objective of supporting these teachers to promote children's learning by bringing basic concepts and principles, step-by-step rubric creation and examples of activities that stimulate learning reflection and monitoring. Using a bottom-up perspective, the methodology used the application of questionnaires and the implementation of an extension course. The data collected was extremely relevant to create a product consistent with the difficulties experienced by the participants who demonstrated in their speeches the lack of time, limited literacy experiences in language teaching for children, lack of access to certain materials, among others.
Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award
Sponsored by Vretta
Winner: Innovating with customers on exam malpractice - Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award
RM
By working alongside a customer in an iterative approach and applying user-led design thinking, RM developed a scalable, live solution in just six weeks that accurately identifies cases of exam malpractice – a prevalent challenge for awarding organisations. We brought together a team of experts from both organisations to identify the challenge in its rawest form, pose questions and innovate on a practical solution. Through an iterative and feedback-driven approach, we were able to work together to constantly improve the solution and in just six weeks, we had produced a validated, ready-to-use solution. The pace of malpractice detection enabled our customer to investigate and make decisions prior to results being released, and continuous collaboration has led to the detection of various forms of exam malpractice - particularly for remote invigilation.
Finalists
Using AI to reduce educators grading workload - Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award
Graide
Graide has revolutionised the traditional assessment workflow with its innovative use of technology. It has been systematically shown to reduce workload and improve feedback for students. Our cloud-based platform provides a consistent digital workflow and can be accessed from any web-capable device, ensuring a seamless experience for students and educators alike. To ensure consistency amongst multiple staff members and allow students to switch devices, we have implemented a single source of truth system. The platform incorporates Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and handwriting recognition to make it easy for students to submit work and for educators to create assignments. Finally, Graide’s use of artificial intelligence allows educators to dynamically update the platform and deal with the nuances between student responses and educator feedback, making it a truly flexible and dynamic solution. Graide has overcome technological, psychological, and educational barriers to adoption, and our serverless architecture allows us to scale up and down to meet demand, making it suitable for a range of institutions. With 94% of users wanting to continue using Graide alongside its innovative use of technology, Graide has transformed the traditional assessment system and should be shortlisted for the award for "Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment."
Revolutionising Distance Learning: AKAD’s Randomised, Balanced, Anytime Assessments - Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award
Cirrus Assessment
In a world where technology is evolving at break-neck speed, two game-changing companies came together to push the boundaries even further. As soon as AKAD met Cirrus, they put their heads together and embarked on a journey to use Cirrus’ blueprint technology in an innovative way. Founded in 1959, AKAD has always found innovative ways to push the boundaries of how education works in Germany. In an increasingly hectic world where balancing work, family, and education is challenging, AKAD recognised the need to provide remote education and testing and is the first state-recognised private university for applied sciences designed for working people. In their quest to provide Germany’s most flexible education system, AKAD and Cirrus joined forces to offer randomised “Anytime Assessments” using the Blueprint function.
Smart AI - CENTURY Tech - Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award
CENTURY Tech
CENTURY’s approach to learning has had a positive impact for post-16 learners. There has been a clear sector-wide need for a rejuvenated initial assessment (IA) process for some time. The current process is time consuming for staff to conduct assessments and interpret results, and existing tests can be unreliable, leading to learners often being assigned to courses that are too hard or too easy. This can be especially damaging for learner confidence and motivation. We identified a clear gap in the market for a cutting edge smart adaptive initial assessment tool. Importantly, we also felt that improving the transition from assessment to learning by making it simpler and seamless would be a real game changer for students' motivation. Our Smart IA tool is designed to intelligently adjust to a learner’s ability in real time, both to ensure they do not become demotivated by a test that is too hard or lose impetus on a test that is too easy. The test automatically marks, reducing tutor workload. Upon completion, a learner is assigned their accurate level to begin the seamless transition to the course appropriate for their level on the CENTURY platform. Smart IA is supported by the Ufi VocTech Trust.
Best International Implementation Award
Sponsored by PSI Online
Winner: Digital Assessments for Schools in Remote Pacific Islands - Best International Implementation Award
Excelsoft Technologies
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System (CNMI PSS) is a school district serving the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory. CNMI PSS prioritizes and develops effective and quality instructional strategies, curriculum and assessments for high student outcomes. CNMI PSS was looking to digitize the delivery of their standards-based summative exams using a secure online solution and sought a provider who could deliver a robust assessment solution with end-to-end assessment management services. Excelsoft implemented a multi-language comprehensive assessment solution, based on our Saras Test and Assessment product, from India by coordinating with multiple teams located in the Commonwealth and Mainland US, separated by a 15-hour time gap across. Excelsoft's reliable administrative and support services enabled smooth management of exams, especially during interruptions due to the unstable weather conditions in the region. The project ensured the continuity of exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling students to take exams from their homes, in accordance with COVID restrictions. With Excelsoft's support, the project has enabled CNMI PSS to significantly cut costs and streamline their exam processes to productively create, manage and deliver all their assessments across multiple schools in the remote islands.
Finalists
English Without Borders - Best International Implementation Award
Kaplan International Tools for English by Kaplan International Pathways UK
Kaplan International Tools for English, a computerised-adaptive test of English was successfully implemented as part of British Council’s ‘English without Borders’ (EwB) project in Colombia. The project’s key aim is to bridge the attainment gap by providing less-privileged students with high-quality English learning opportunities through a virtual learning programme, inclusive of digital materials and standardised assessment, offered in addition to regular school-based instruction. As the findings from EwB are to inform Colombia’s National Bilingual Policy reform, a robust language measurement tool was needed to evaluate the impact of the programme. Kaplan entered into partnership with BCC to provide this tool. The Kaplan International Tools for English is a secure, online, adaptive, scalable and instruction-sensitive language proficiency measurement tool, which enables accurate learning gain tracking over time. The results reportability of the Kaplan test enabled detailed insights into EwB students’ performances, necessary for analyses of EwB’s effectiveness. The EwB is a large-scale project which grew from one location and 4,165 applicants during the first iteration in 2021, to 7,661 applicants in 2022 in three locations and over 250 schools. Now, in its third year of implementation and extending into 2025, we expect to test an additional 5000 learners across multiple locations.
Coding in Minecraft Transforming Computer Science Education Worldwide - Best International Implementation Award
Prodigy Learning
‘Coding in Minecraft’ is aK-12 computer science credential program with supporting curriculum delivered through the immersive world of Minecraft. Launched in the UK in 2018, the US in2019 and Australia in 2021 it is transforming computer science education at scale across the world. Developed by Prodigy Learning, it engages youngand diverse learners throughgame-based learning incomputer science andcoding and rewards learning with credentials. Students learnby completing activities either individually or collaboratively and undertakeformative and summative assessments to prove their skills. In 2022 Prodigy increased global market penetration with a definingyear ofunprecedented innovation andsuccess for theproduct securing many transformational deals, driving growth insales and users as well asenhancing customer e昀昀icienciesandoutcomes inglobal markets. The US has seenthe greatest adoption as it provides a solutionto the manychallenges of implementinga computer science policy. ‘Coding in Minecraft’ is available to all schools in various states such as North Carolina, Washington, Alaska and Idaho. Key to thegrowth of‘Coding in Minecraft’ has beenthe winning the Best Formative Assessment Project at the2021 eAssessment Awards which has provided validation ofthe product forglobal customers.
Best Formative Assessment Project Award
Sponsored by ACER
Winner: GoReact - empower confident skills through formative feedback - Best Formative Assessment Project Award
GoReact
In many phases of education and learning, courses are built around summative assessments: final exams, final projects and final opportunities to demonstrate an entire unit, semester or years’ worth of learning. The problem with this approach is its finality. Summative assessment evaluates the end of learning over time without accounting for the progression of learning over time. In contrast, formative assessment not only measures, but helps improve learning and skill development over time. Instructors may steer away from this approach because it can be time-consuming or difficult to implement. One solution for both challenges is video. Using video for formative assessment gives instructors a fast and flexible way to monitor learner progress and promote their success—through targeted feedback, personalised learning, and self/peer evaluation—learners know where to focus their efforts when it’s time to prepare for final assessments. Born in Utah in 2011, GoReact is now used in more than 800 institutions and training environments around the world. Over 25 million videos have been uploaded and recorded by more than 1 million users worldwide and an infinite number of skills have been empowered. This is proof that video + feedback = confident skills.
Finalists
Check-in delivers critical learning gap data during COVID - Best Formative Assessment Project Award
Janison Education Group Limited
When schooling was disrupted across Australia during the COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020, the New South Wales Department of Education (NSW DoE) was concerned that students’ learning progress would be impacted. The NSW DoE engaged Australian edtech pioneer Janison to develop an online diagnostic tool that would quickly identify students’ learning gaps in literacy and numeracy. The Check-in assessment was implemented in an expeditious six-week timeframe and delivered to 1290 schools during a three-week window in Term 3. With test results provided within an unprecedented 24 hours, teachers had instant access to insights that allowed them to implement targeted literacy and numeracy support for students who needed extra help. Growing rapidly since its inception, the Check-in assessment delivered 1.2 million tests to New South Wales (NSW) schools in 2022, representing a 95 percent participation rate across all NSW schools. In 2022, Janison also implemented newly developed accessibility features to provide an equitable assessment experience for students with disability. NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell dubbed Check-in “a world-class diagnostic tool”.
FirstPass: A human-centered AI project - Best Formative Assessment Project Award
NCFE & Bolton College
Developed by Bolton College and supported by NCFE’s Assessment Innovation Fund (AIF) initiative, FirstPass is an innovative online platform that supports learners and teachers with the formative assessment of open-ended questions. By offering real-time, automated feedback to learners as they compose their answers, FirstPass allows students to reflect upon and improve their answers before submitting them to their teachers for final review and commentary. In doing so, the platform significantly reduces teacher workload by offering learners targeted, one-to-one feedback which remains consistent, regardless of the volume of marking required. Traditionally, online formative assessment activities have been limited to closed questioning techniques such as multiple-choice or yes/no questions. FirstPass breaks boundaries by harnessing technology which makes possible the automatic online analysis of the highly valuable assessment methodology of open-ended questions. Co-funded by NCFE’s AIF and Ufi VocTech Trust, six UK-based colleges are currently using FirstPass to benefit from the value that it generates for learners, teachers and educational institutions. Subject specialists from all six institutions are training up the AI that powers the platform and increasing the dataset that sits behind it (known as ‘crowdsourcing’), helping to accurately and quickly provide formative feedback in subject areas ranging from business to sport.
Comprehensive Formative Assessment Solution for Large Educational Publisher - Best Formative Assessment Project Award
Excelsoft Technologies
Jones & Bartlett Learning (JBL) is a well-established trade publisher in the United States that offers instructional, assessment, and learning performance management solutions to the secondary, post-secondary, and professional markets. They have been developing high-quality learning solutions for over 30 years, covering a wide range of fields such as nursing, public health, health administration, health professions, and computer science, among others. While many trade publishers still rely on physical books or non-interactive PDFs, JBL recognized the increasing demand for digital courseware and sought a partner to help them transition to an engaging and comprehensive digital formative learning experience. In order to accomplish this goal, JBL collaborated with Excelsoft, who created a one-of-a-kind formative learning and assessment ecosystem by bringing together various digital learning products, which consisted of an ebook platform based on the product OpenPage, as well as a Flashcard application and a test prep platform, both based on the flagship Saras Test and Assessment platform. These solutions were then integrated into JBL's Moodle-based Learning Management System (LMS) to ensure a seamless learning experience for all types of learners.
Best Summative Assessment Project Award
Sponsored by Janison
Winner: International Medical University - Best Summative Assessment Project Award
Excelsoft Technologies
The International Medical University (IMU), Malaysia, is a premier medical and health sciences university established in 1992. It offers various educational programs, from pre-university to postgraduate levels, as well as professional development courses. With its curricula benchmarked to international standards and a learning model grounded in its core values, IMU fosters students into knowledgeable and competent healthcare professionals. In 2017, the university decided to transition from its paper-based testing to an end-to-end digital assessment platform for streamlining its entire assessment process and leveraging powerful analytics to enhance assessment quality. To achieve this, IMU partnered with Excelsoft, which implemented its flagship Saras Test and Assessment platform, the design for which was guided by the principles of outcome-based education, strong alignment of curriculum and assessment, and provision of timely and individualized student feedback. During the pandemic, the university expanded its requirement for on-campus exam delivery to include remote delivery. This was done to ensure an uninterrupted assessment cycle, which enabled students to graduate on time and make valuable contributions to the medical field during challenging times. Notably, the flexibility to take exams anywhere, on any device, resulted in the doubling of assessments during and post the pandemic.
Finalists
Mercer - Great Lakes' journey to online examinations - Best Summative Assessment Project Award
Mercer
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai founded in 2004 is one of the premier B-schools in India. Great Lakes has proactively pioneered several innovations, such as embracing mobile-technology-enabled blended and online learning, making high-quality management education available to learners across the gamut. The management also incorporated a learning management system (LMS) to administer in-class online tests, assessing that the pen-and-paper assessment process may need a technical overhaul in the future. However despite their forward thinking and actions in developing an LMS to support their innovations, the system didn’t allow for online proctoring or the integration of proctoring technology, therefor limiting the Schools ability to conduct online exams in a fully virtual environment. In order to drive forward with their innovation plans, Great Lakes sought an online examination platform that ensured exam integrity, fairness and transparency. Mercer’s team worked with Great Lakes to understand their needs and provide a solution that supported their innovative journey to online examinations. This partnership allowed over 400 students to complete their final year exams with integrity and ease in a familiar environment which eliminated some anxieties associated with exams. The partnership also lead to further adoption of the technology for end-of-semester exams and mid-term tests.
Summative Assessment Project - Best Summative Assessment Project Award
Ulster University
This submission claims how an online weekly blog posting e-assessment improved the assessment process in a masters’ programme by making it accessible, reliable, valid, and inclusive. Ulster University (UU) is a civic university in Northern Ireland (NI). Inclusion is its core value. Widening participation is its ambition. UU attracts students from across NI, where almost a quarter of a million working-age adults are disabled. NI has 25% higher rates of anxiety and depression among adults in comparison to other UK nations (OSR, 2021). MSc Human Resource Management (HRM) is a popular course, and its students are therefore increasingly diverse. Mature adult partitioners who work as HR officers in local organisations attend this course. As experts by experience (of doing HRM) but new to formal education, most students experience high level anxiety and stress when completing traditional assignments such as essays and exams. They feel inadequate and less confident in reaching their full potential. The redesigned, weekly blog posting assessment gave all students, specifically to those with autism and ADHD, an opportunity to flourish, and achieve good grades. Evaluations consistently show evidence of new knowledge acquisition, higher marks development of original ideas, and inclusive ‘communities of practitioner-learners’.
