The e-Assessment Association acquires Beyond Multiple Choice

The e-Assessment Association (eAA) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Beyond Multiple Choice (BMC) brand and events, which will now form part of the e-Assessment Association activities. This supports the eAA’s vision to share the positive contributions that technology brings to assessment, expanding its global reach from its core UK and European markets.

“BMC started out in 2017 as an in-person gathering of researchers, testing service providers and educators. Our goal was to share solutions, insights and discoveries related to digital assessment design and practice,” said BMC co-founder, Brian Moon.

Today, BMC has evolved to a platform for events and digital content exploring the future of assessment, with its flagship conference focusing on the technical, programmatic and practical aspects of assessment innovation. BMC’s diverse audience includes over 13,000 forward-thinking assessment practitioners, stakeholders, and decision makers from 90 countries. “We’ve been amazed and energized by the response – BMC is clearly filling a need for idea exchange,” said BMC co-founder Jeffrey Ross.

Patrick Coates, eAA Chief Executive says, “Since the eAA was founded in 2008 we have seen significant interest in, and continued adoption of, digital assessment. The e-assessment industry is rapidly developing with the introduction of new technologies making it easier and more cost-effective to deliver high-quality technology-enabled assessment. Incorporating Beyond Multiple Choice continues to expand our reach in representing the assessment community so that we are better able to educate and share best practice.”

2023 BMC Conference

Long-time BMC sponsor TAO by Open Assessment Technologies (OAT) will return as the BMC 2023 conference Headline Sponsor. “Our mission to expand the adoption of digital assessment tools and practices is clearly aligned with the goals of Beyond Multiple choice, and we value the opportunity to be the Headline Sponsor again at this year’s event,” says Ashley Senkarik, VP of Marketing at OAT. “BMC has continuously shown immense value to the industry through the thoughtful and engaging content it puts out and we’re excited to further strengthen our relationship.”

This year, the BMC virtual conference will be held over two days: November 7th and 8th. The theme for this year’s Conference is “Brave new assessment in the age of AI”

With the e-Assessment Association’s backing, BMC provides a unique platform for professionals in the assessment industry to explore the advancements and possibilities that AI brings to the field. The conference will showcase innovative approaches, emerging technologies, and best practices that leverage AI in assessment methodologies. By focusing on the theme of AI and its impact on assessment, BMC offers an exciting opportunity for attendees to gain insights, exchange ideas, and collaborate with industry experts. The conference sessions will cover a wide range of topics, providing a comprehensive understanding of the role of AI in shaping the future of assessment.

Those interested in attending and/or speaking can sign up to receive email announcements on the eAA Conference website at www.eaaconf.app/bmc2023

e-Assessment Association appoints Patrick Coates as Chief Executive Officer

We are delighted to announce that Patrick Coates has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the e-Assessment Association (eAA).

Patrick has been a board member of the eAA for over 10 years and in that time he has played a key role in the development of the association in the UK and internationally. In addition to his work with the eAA, Pat has been active in the Assessment Industry for over 25 years working with a range of organisations in market development roles in the UK and international markets.

A planned transition process has begun and Patrick will commence the role on 1^st May 2023.

Graham Hudson, Chair of the eAA, commented on Patrick’s appointment:

“We are delighted to appoint Patrick Coates to the role of CEO and we look forward to working with him as he leads the eAA in the next exciting phase of our development within the global assessment community.’

“The role of CEO has been created by the board to help give the association more focus and capacity as we look to deliver our mission to ‘promote better assessment of knowledge, skills and capabilities of people through technology’

“In recent years the eAA has grown strongly through key initiatives such as the E-assessment Conference and Awards, our strengthened relationships with key stakeholders such as Awarding Organisations and Assessment Technology providers and the growing number of Special Interest Groups which support best practice and innovation within the Assessment Community.

“The board have set a clear direction that we want the eAA to continue to grow and develop our capability to deliver our mission in the UK and internationally. We were thrilled to have such a strong group of candidates engaged in the recruitment process each able to bring an impressive range of valuable skills and experience to the role.

“The board members on the recruitment panel were particularly impressed by Pat’s repeated success in helping organisations grow, especially in international markets, and by his vision for the future development of the Association.

“The board would also like to take this opportunity to thank Matt Wingfield who is stepping down as interim CEO. Matt has played a pivotal role in the growth and development of the eAA both as Chair and interim CEO and we are very grateful for the leadership he has given over recent years. We are delighted that Matt will continue to play a key role within the association as we move forward.”

If you have any questions or would like any further information then please contact Graham Hudson ([email protected])

2023 e-Assessment Awards Finalists Announced

We are delighted to announce the shortlisted finalists for the seventh international e-Assessment Awards. The e-Assessment Awards programme holds a unique and truly global position, as it encompasses all sectors of education from schools, through further and higher education to workplace training and professional exams.

Matt Wingfield, Chief Executive of the e-Assessment Association said, “We are delighted to present the finalists for this year’s e-Assessment Awards, yet again demonstrating the level of innovation, research and rigour which is driving change in the industry globally.

“The past few years have seen the greatest advance not only in the uptake of organisations switching to use some form of online assessments, but also a recognition that both learning and assessment can be enhanced by embracing digital technology. Recent interest in AI developments such as ChatGPT have shone a spotlight on digital assessment with the topic now of interest beyond specialist media. This is nothing new for our industry and we are proud to celebrate the finalists for this year’s awards who are demonstrating how technology is transforming the way assessment is approached across the world.”

Professor Bob Harrison, Chair of the Judges said, “It is an enormous privilege to be a part of these awards and to gain a glimpse of the future world of online assessment. Every year the entries astonish me with their innovation and continued development and this year is no exception. These awards demonstrate the capacity and capability within the world of e-assessment to use technology to improve the assessment process and make it more accessible, reliable, valid, relevant, and cost effective.”

The finalists within the respective categories are:

Best International Implementation sponsored by PSI

Prodigy Learning with Coding in Minecraft Transforming Computer Science Education Worldwide
Excelsoft Technologies with Digital Assessments for Schools in Remote Pacific Islands
Kaplan International Tools for English by Kaplan International Pathways UK with English Without Borders

Best Formative Assessment Project sponsored ACER

Janison Education Group Limited with Check-in delivers critical learning gap data during COVID
Excelsoft Technologies with Comprehensive Formative Assessment Solution for Large Educational Publisher
NCFE and Bolton College with FirstPass: A human-centered AI project
GoReact with GoReact – empower confident skills through formative feedback

Best Summative Assessment Project sponsored by Janison

Excelsoft Technologies with International Medical University
Mercer with Mercer – Great Lakes’ journey to online examinations
Ulster University with Summative Assessment Project

Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project

Achieve+Partners and Eintech with Assessor-led, all in one system
Keelson Marine Assurance and TestReach with Identifying & Resolving Off-shore Risks for Shipping Companies
Tata Consultancy Services with TCS Elevate Assessments
RM with Using ACJ to nurture talent in corporate finance

Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment sponsored by Vretta

RM with Innovating with customers on exam malpractice
Cirrus Assessment with Revolutionising Distance Learning: AKAD’s Randomised, Balanced, Anytime Assessments
CENTURY Tech with Smart IA – CENTURY Tech
Graide with Using AI to reduce educators grading workload

Best Transformational Project sponsored by RM

Birmingham City University with BCU Hybrid Model
Televic Education with The NAATI Assessment Transformation for Translation and Interpreting

Best Research

State University of Londrina with Self-assessment guide for English teachers in Brazil

The winners will be announced at the Awards Gala Dinner on 6^th June 2023 in London which forms part of the two-day International e-Assessment Conference. Professor Donald Clark, CEO of Wildfire, director, investor, author, speaker, blogger and podcaster is the keynote speaker for the Awards Gala Dinner. Donald has spent nearly 40 years in learning technologies has been working in AI for learning over the last seven years.

The International e-Assessment Conference is the world’s foremost digital assessment conference which returns as a face-to-face event in London on 6^th and 7th June. The conference includes a presentation zone as well as an interactive zone, where delegates can get hands-on with new technology. Delegates will hear from formative and summative assessment experts and practitioners from Workplace, Professional Awarding Organisations, Schools, Colleges, and Higher Education with inspiring case studies, insightful presentations and thought-provoking panel discussions.

Purchase your tickets for the 2023 International e-Assessment Conference and Awards gala dinner on the eAA website here.

e-Assessment Association announcement – Matt Wingfield Stepping Down as Interim CEO

The e-Assessment Association announces that Matt Wingfield is stepping down from his role as Interim CEO of the association.

Matt was a founding member of the association and has been a board member for over 11 years including 9 years as Chairman and more recently nearly 2 years in the role of interim CEO.

During that time the association has grown and developed from being a small group of individuals who were passionate about promoting the use of technology to deliver fairer assessments into an organization with over 3,100 members and 35 sponsors in the UK and internationally. In recent times the scope of the association has grown even further with the creation of the hugely successful International Conference and Awards.

The board of the eAA has put in place a process to appoint a permanent CEO and we will announce more shortly.

Graham Hudson, Chair of the eAA, commented on Matt’s decision to step down at Interim CEO:

“On behalf of the board and all of our members and sponsors, I would like to thank Matt for the commitment, passion, expertise and energy he has brought to his roles as Chair, Interim CEO and board member of the e-Assessment Association.

“Everyone involved in the eAA understands what a pivotal role Matt has played in the growth and development of the association throughout its life. This includes the creation of the hugely successful International eAssessment Awards, now in their seventh year, as well as being instrumental in establishing the eAA’s own annual conference. Matt’s leadership and vision for the association and its mission and values has been a consistent thread in our development and success.

“As Chair for many years, Matt gave incredibly generously of his own time and energy to provide leadership and focus to the association as it sought to establish itself as an influential voice within the assessment community. Matt’s own expertise, connections and leadership across the assessment industry have played a huge part in the successful achievement of this goal.

“In recent years Matt and the board recognised that the structure of the association needed to adapt to meet the demands of a fast-growing organisation with an increasingly international reach. To do this we created the role of CEO with the remit to focus on commercial growth and lead the delivery of the board’s strategy for the association. The board are very grateful to Matt for the way in which he took on this interim role to ensure a smooth transition and establishment of our new structure.

“We are delighted that Matt is going to continue to play a leading role within the eAA including continuing the work with Special Interest Groups and strategic partnerships which has been so crucial in building the association’s links with key stakeholders within the assessment community.

We thank Matt for his work as Chair and Interim CEO and look forward to his ongoing help and support as the eAA continues to find new ways to deliver our mission to ‘promote better assessment of knowledge, skills and capabilities of people through technology”

Matt Wingfield, Interim CEO of the eAA commented:

“I have very much enjoyed my time as Chair and Interim CEO for the eAA and I am excited about the future for the association.

“My passion and belief in the power of technology to support fairer and more authentic assessment remains as strong now as it did when I first became involved with the association in 2008. As the eAA approaches its fifteenth anniversary, I look back with immense pride and satisfaction at the progress the eAA has made during my tenure and I am excited about its future and the role the eAA will continue to play in supporting the use of technology enabled assessment. The eAA is now extremely well placed to deliver our mission with even greater impact across the international assessment community.

“There will never be a perfect time to step back from roles that I have enjoyed so much but I feel that, now the structure and role of the CEO is established for the association, the time is right for a new team to deliver the exciting strategy that the board and I agreed at the end of 2022

“Although I have always enjoyed and valued the time I have given to the eAA, it does inevitably distract from my own independent consultancy work and I would like to have more time to develop this further, as well as to support my wife through what is likely to be a difficult period in her life. A key part of the forward plan for the association is to increase our international reach and presence and this will involve more international travel than my other commitments will currently allow.

“I am very much looking forward to continuing my work within the eAA and ensuring a smooth transition to the new CEO and Executive team as those appointments are announced.”

If you have any questions or would like any further information then please contact Graham Hudson ([email protected])

Online Proctoring Seminar: Your Questions Answered

In March 2023, we held an Online Proctoring seminar covering three areas:

AI in Online Proctoring
Online Proctoring: What Happens Next?
Online Assessment in a Medical Context

There were several questions asked during the seminar, so many in fact that we didn’t have time to answer them all. eAA Board member, Patrick Coates, kindly offered to review them and provide some answers and perspectives.

Question: “Up to what percentage we can trust AI, especially in terms of exams delivery? Do we solely rely on it or do we still require a manual monitoring?

There are solutions available in the market do include 100% AI but it is up to the exam owner as to what is an appropriate level of security for that exam. The key is understanding what the issues are if you get it wrong, i.e. you stop someone from completing an exam, but the AI got it wrong. Most of the solutions that are being used are AI-assisted, where the AI is flagging up for a person to review and make a decision.

Question: Any views on affect recognition – could this be introduced and misused?

There was a mention of biometrics (if I have understood this correctly) being introduced in the ‘Online Proctoring: What Happens Next? panel discussion, with the possible introduction of wearable tech. It is probably difficult to be able to use some data (exams are stressful anyway and the possibility for false positives may be high). However, anything that provides more data, in theory should be beneficial, if used together with range of data points.

Question: Do you have any concerns that developing a good proctoring service may just become an ‘arms race’? Would a move away from the traditional ‘controlled conditioned exams’ towards a more ‘authentic assessment’ model impact the demand for proctoring in the future?

There are other assessments in place as we discussed in the Medical Setting’ panel session but these have challenges associated with them. No solution, even how we do things at the moment, is perfect. At the moment we are using technology to existing exam process, without changing it. There is work going on with Augmented Reality and simulations to provide alternatives, but these have challenges too.

Question: To what degree do you see human supervisors entirely trusting the AI rather than verifying the reports themselves?

I see it as the AI providing the data and it is up to the proctor to make the decision on how to interpret that data, based on their training. There is always evidence in terms of recording available and it is also a question of who is proctoring the proctors. I do know organisations do check that the correct decisions are made, not just as part of an appeals process, but also to check the integrity of their processes.

One audience member also replied to this question during the session: At my institution, we have an authentic assessment strategy but there are always some modules that lend themselves better to tests and exams

Question: In respect to security again, how do you see AI being used to prevent fraud/theft of content rather than candidate cheating to pass an exam?

The live proctoring provides this, as opposed to the record and review which works in an academic setting.

If you want to watch the online proctoring seminar again, or if you are one of the few who couldn’t make it, you can watch the event again here

Online Proctoring Webinar

Our judges thoughts on the 2023 International e-Assessment Awards

Attracting entries from around the world, the International e-Assessment Awards allow individuals and teams, practitioners and suppliers to showcase how they have used technology to improve the assessment process. Founded in 2017, this awards programme holds a unique position, as it encompasses all sectors of education: from schools, through further and higher education to workplace training and professional exams.

Professor Bob Harrison, chair of the Judges says, “It is an enormous privilege to be a part of these awards and to gain a glimpse of the future world of online assessment. I look forward to judging these awards as every year the entries astonish me with their innovation and continued development. These awards demonstrate the capacity and capability within the world of e-assessment to use technology to improve the assessment process and make it more accessible, reliable, valid, relevant, and cost effective.”

We also asked the chair of the judges for each of the award categories to tell us more about their award category.

Rajeev Menon, Chair of the Judging Panel for the Best International Implementation award said “The International Implementation Award is a recognition of the impact of technology in learning outcome / job relevance measurement in areas that are often underserved by solutions to very fundamental issues in these areas due to lack of innovative use of technology. In the past years, we have seen some groundbreaking work by organizations to overcome problems created by inability to conduct in-class exams during the pandemic, conducting exams in situations where traditional exams couldn’t be conducted at costs that make the solutions easily scalable.

“We have also seen use of technology in improving learning outcome as well as democratizing learning across the spectrum. We look forward to exciting ideas that have been implemented at a reasonable scale and have shown outcomes that have created high impact in learning and measurements.”

Tim Downie, Chair of the judging panel for the Best Summative Assessment Project Award said, “I can’t think of a better time to be chairing the panel of judges for the Best Summative Project Award. We are seeing some amazing innovations coming through from organisations that had to adapt their approach to summative assessment due to the pandemic.

“Organisations showed amazing creativity in using technology in new ways, adapting the style of assessments and in how they interacted with their candidates. We are now seeing some of that innovative thinking and creativity required during the pandemic being refined and developed to work on a more sustainable basis.

“I’m hoping to see case studies about how assessment models have adapted to support accessibility, to provide a more pleasant candidate or experience or how technology has been used to assess knowledge and skills in a way that hadn’t seemed possible even a few years ago. There are lots of great examples out there and I’m looking forward to seeing as many as possible enter for the award and to get the recognition they deserve!”

Geoff Chapman is the Chair of the judging panel for the Best Research Project Award, “The e-Assessment Association award for Best Research recognises those experts and practitioners for their hardy, sturdy, and vigorous work. It acknowledges that key and epochal assessment policy choices are underpinned by robust research.

“We applaud those who dedicate themselves to academic excellence, and for opening our collective eyes to on-the-ground practice and issues.

“We see entries from highly cited experts in their sector, researchers who bring us field reports from the front line. Without fear or favour, they explore new frontiers, challenging norms, received wisdom, and anecdote-based viewpoints. They deploy robust methodology and research techniques, and when research is done well, the whole sector benefits.”

Pat Coates, chair of the judging panel for the Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment award says, “The ‘Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment’ is seen as the Blue Ribbon of the awards as it acknowledges the creativity and invention of those organisations that are using technology to solve real problems. I am sure we will see lots of submissions with AI at the heart of the solution. However, innovation is a matter of perspective, it does not have to be leading-edge tech. It could be using an existing technology in a new way. So, if you implemented a solution quickly, or at scale to respond to COVID, using existing technologies, you should still take the time to submit”

The 2023 Awards are Open for Entries and the entry deadline is 24^th February (midnight GMT). There are seven award categories for you to enter:

Best Workplace or Talent Assessment Project recognises an assessment project or solution which brings clearly identifiable benefits to workplace or talent assessment in a specific field or fields.
Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment recognises an individual, team or organisation that has undertaken a project that has been highly innovative in terms of new technology, or how technology was used in a new and different way for the project.
Best Transformational Project recognises a project where technology has positively and genuinely transformed assessment practices.
Best Research recognises best practice in research as well as the impact on the stakeholder community.
Best International Implementation recognises an innovative and effective programme in one or more countries outside of your main country of operation.
Best Formative Assessment Project recognises an assessment project or solution which brings clearly identifiable benefits to formative assessment in a specific field or fields.
Best Summative Assessment Project recognises an assessment project or solution which brings clearly identifiable benefits to summative assessment in a specific field or fields.

In addition we’d like your nominations for these three awards:

Best Practitioner of the Year Award (team award and individual award) acknowledges an individual or team who deserve to be recognised for outstanding use of e-assessment in the last year.
Lifetime Contribution Award is presented to an individual who has contributed a significant and sustained contribution to e-assessment over the duration of their career.

Find out more and enter here: https://www.e-assessment.com/awards-categories/