'Assessment Tomorrow' Conference

I attended the ‘Assessment Tomorrow’ conference a couple of weeks ago, and there were some interesting aspects of e assessment highlighted by speakers. Norman Emerson presented an update on the SQA NAR (National Assessment Resource), which is intended to be an online resource for practitioners to support the implementation of CfE. A lot of the materials are currently more geared for colleagues in schools, but there will be more developed materials soon to support other programmes such as NQs. His presentation is included in this entry.

There was an interesting and positive presentation given on the use of e portfolios as a mode of assessment by Maxine Garson from Highland Education Authority. Maxine is employed as a School Liaison Officer on Skills for Work programmes, and has been developing the use of e portfolios to overcome some of the geographical challenges associated with course delivery across the region, and has recently extended this to the practice of e verification.

Matt Wingfield’s presentation featured a briefing on a small pilot that is being carried out in partnership with SQA on the use of ‘Comparative Pairs’ as a way of assessing a range of diverse pieces of evidence and avoiding subjectivity. His organisation (TAG Developments) has devised an algorithm which can help assessors rank/grade a group of students’ work. With reference to the CfE’s emphasis on encouraging more and more diverse ways for learners to present work for assessment, Matt had some good ideas for consideration. There is a web address for more information about the pilot study in his presentation, included here.

There were other interesting and innovative ideas for the future such as the use of an electronic marking tool (Red Pen Tool), the use of mobile phone technology related to assessment of language learning, as well as many examples of online assessments from preschool up to upper secondary.

You can access the presentations in the S Drive -
S:/LandT/Public/Assessment tomorrow.


Jenni Moreland