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/