2025 Award FinalistsThe Educational Assessment Outcomes Award
The Educational Assessment Outcomes Award is a new award for 2025 presented in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA). This award highlights excellence in the use of assessment to drive impactful educational outcomes, honouring practices that improve learning experiences and achievements.
Read on for more information on the 2025 finalists in this Award category at the 2025 International e-Assessment Awards.
Gateway Qualifications with Equitable Assessment in Prisons
Project Summary
A ground-breaking project, working with partners, to deliver a digitally enabled assessment of Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQ) within prisons that has equity and parity with the digital assessments taken in the community whilst addressing the security protocols and operational constraints of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Following a pilot with 4 prisons, we have successfully created a fair, reliable and comparable assessment, using digital simulations developed alongside HMPPS, to replicate certain aspects of the assessment delivery to enable prisoners, who are not normally permitted to access the Internet, to engage, sit assessments and achieve Essential Digital Skills Qualifications, allowing them to progress in life and work.
Commenting on being a finalist, Gateway Qualifications said, “Gateway Qualifications is an awarding organisation that champions second chances. It’s in our DNA. Our charitable objects frame the work we do; widening participation, particularly for those whose educational opportunities were limited, for whatever reason, in their formative years.
Consequently, prison education is important to us. It’s a complex landscape, with lots of challenges and constraints, yet we persist. That’s why we were thrilled to be shortlisted for this eAA award. This was a ground-breaking piece of work that we have spearheaded, Essential Digital Skills Qualifications that can be delivered in the ‘secure estate’, but with the parity of a community qualification. No mean feat in an environment where a quarter of the prison population is still housed in Victorian-era buildings.
The winners in this are not us, they are the prison education and ICT infrastructure teams who worked alongside us for three years to find a solution before we launched the qualifications and assessments in prisons.
Reflecting on this partnership, Elaine Courtney, Senior Contract Manager, at HMPPS said: ‘HMPPS determined that these new qualifications would be introduced to prison education to ensure prisoners have access to the most up-to-date and relevant qualifications and assessments. Gateway Qualifications has made a significant contribution to the roll out of Essential Digital Skills across the prison estate by working collaboratively to develop the digital infrastructure to meet the respective requirements. This has led to the modernisation of the ICT curriculum in alignment with the community provision within the prison estate.’
But ultimately, the winners are the prisoners, who, with the barriers to education broken down, can engage and gain the digital literacy skills required for employment and a successful life on release. And this is why it would mean so much to win, to celebrate a move towards a more inclusive society.”
The Assessment Network: Cambridge University Press & Assessment with Classroom Assessment: Transforming outcomes for learners
Project Summary
The classroom assessment course is an online, self-study course comprised of 6 modules focusing on key areas of assessment knowledge: Assessment theory, a strategic approach to assessment, designing and asking effective questions, collecting and critically interpreting assessment data, optimising feedback for learners and metacognition, self and peer-assessment. These areas of knowledge were based on a research project, which looked to build on the work of Xu and Brown (2016) in defining key areas of teacher assessment practice.
The course was initially piloted to 100 teachers in a wide range of international settings. The findings of this pilot were used to refine the course content and help ensure that it was as accessible and applicable as possible. One new area of knowledge, peer-assessment, was also identified by participants as a key pedagogical area and hence included in the course post-pilot.
Since the post-pilot course launched in August 2024, over 100 teachers have enrolled from 27 different countries. Participant experience of the course has been extremely positive, with 62% of participants rating their experience as excellent, and 96% rating their experience as good or higher.
Commenting on being a finalist, The Assessment Network said, “We are delighted that The Assessment Network, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, has been named a finalist for the CIEA Educational Assessment Outcomes Award.
This recognition underscores the importance of effective assessment in driving student progress and affirms our commitment to supporting educators worldwide to develop and enhance their assessment literacy.
Our shortlisted online course, Classroom Assessment for Teachers: Transforming Outcomes for Learners, was developed with one goal in mind—equipping teachers with accessible, practical professional development to enhance their assessment practices.
Guided by insights from a global needs survey of 465 teachers across 72 countries, we built a flexible, on-demand learning experience grounded in research from Cambridge experts and leading scholars such as Dylan Wiliam and John Sweller.
Since its launch in August 2024, the course has had an incredible impact. Teachers in over 25 countries have engaged with it, reporting a rise in assessment confidence from 3.1 to 4.4 out of 5.
With 96% rating it as good or higher, and 70% deeming it highly applicable to their teaching, we’re seeing meaningful change—from peer assessment adoption to departmental strategy improvements.
This achievement is the result of our team’s dedication and the invaluable feedback from educators around the world. We are immensely grateful for the enthusiasm with which teachers have embraced this course and proud of the difference it is making. A sincere thank you to the e-Assessment Association and the CIEA for this honour—it is a privilege to be recognized as a finalist.”
For more information on all finalists in the 2025 International e-Assessment Awards, visit our finalists webpage.
