OCR Case Study

OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) is one of the leading UK awarding bodies and is committed to providing a wide range of general and vocational qualifications that engage learners of all ages. The organisation is dedicated to developing e-assessment across its qualification offer and sees e-assessment and the use of e-portfolios as becoming fundamental in a modern education system.
- E-assessment is more interactive than paper based systems and allows for greater manipulation of data on screen including the use of digital video and audio files.
- Over the years e-assessment has progressed to the development of computer mediated solutions which include online marking, e-testing and the use of digital evidence and e-portfolios.
- OCR’s key focus for e-assessment reflects many of the regulatory principles for e-assessment, namely accessibility, data security, validity and reliability of assessments.
- The biggest challenge is to move more towards on demand assessment.
- Currently success can be demonstrated through the provision of keyskills and basic skills with an average of 85,000 candidates per year taking online assessments.
- E-assessment in GCSEs remains optional but is accessible across the OCR GCSE offer. The e-repository is widely available across most of the GCSEs – it is an eportfolio which allows the acceptance of digital evidence.
- OCR have carried out research into the comparability between digital and paper based portfolio evidence and found that there was a broad equivalence between the two forms when evidencing the same criteria.
OCR: e-Assessment Case Study from Kenji Lamb on Vimeo.