ONSCREEN TESTING

1
ON-SCREEN TESTING on THE ISLE OF WIGHT The
Power of Digital Assessment June 15th
2005 eLearning_at_greenwich/conference Extending
the classroom walls
2
The Isle of Wight has three phase educational
provision
WHY E-ASSESSMENT ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT?

• 5 High schools (year 9 post 16)
• 16 Middle schools (year 5 year 8)
• 46 Primary schools (year R year 4)
• 2 Special schools (MLD and SLD primary and
  secondary)

3
THE NEED FOR INDIVIDUAL PUPIL DATA

• The three phase system has meant that we
  needed to develop a robust system of
  benchmarked data at pupil level to inform
  assessment for learning and phase transfer.
• Schools in the Isle of Wight have
  been using nferNelsons Cognitive Abilities
  Tests (CAT) and Suffolk Reading Scale (SRS) for
  many years
• The tests are administered in year 3,
  year 5, year 7 and year 9 to all Island pupils
  by agreement with the schools these results are
  shared both by the school and the LA

4
NFERNELSONS COGNITIVE ABILITIES TEST (CAT) AND
SUFFOLK READING SCALE (SRS)

• The schools use these results in a
  variety of ways to support learning by helping
  teachers identify individual pupil strengths and
  weaknesses, develop realistic targets for their
  classes, profile pupil groups and identify target
  groups of pupils. Also helping to indicate
  preferred learning styles and pupils likely
  exam results
• Last year, the Isle of Wight explored
  the option of delivering the tests online rather
  than using the traditional paper-based versions
  and instantly saw the advantages of the
  e-assessment option.

5
THE CAT3 AND SRS2 DIGITAL TESTS

• The Isle of Wight Local Authority (LA)
  has become a leading supporter of onscreen
  testing and intends to develop this practice
  throughout its 69 schools. The authority is
  delivering both cognitive abilities and reading
  tests via computers to help save teachers time
  obtain high quality diagnostic information
  quickly and make the assessment process a little
  less stressful for students.
• The tests are delivered via
  nferNelsons Testwise, a portal that allows
  schools to administer tests via PCs and
  automatically marks answers. Pupil diagnostic
  information is available to view online and can
  be downloaded into the school or LA management
  information system for reference.

6
THE JOURNEY TO ONSCREEN TESTING

• Our schools are well versed in the
  administration of paper versions of the
  Cognitive Abilities Tests (CAT) and Suffolk
  Reading Scale (SRS) which are taken annually by
  pupils in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 the results
  collated and sent by the LA for analysis and
  returned to the school.
• The LA invited head teachers to a
  workshop to try the onscreen tests and evaluate
  the system to see if they would prefer to run
  on screen tests in their school.
• The heads saw that the tests could
  reduce the amount of time teachers needed to
  compile and manage assessments. This, coupled
  with the impact of the improved feedback and
  quick access to results decided the LA to move
  to the onscreen version of the tests

7
THE IMPLEMENTATION THE PILOT

• The LA set up an initial round of
  training for staff in selected Middle and High
  schools who were willing to pilot the on screen
  tests
• Five middle schools and one high
  school were the first to switch to the online
  versions of the tests and they achieved a good
  testing experience .
• Teachers taking part in the pilot were
  encouraged by the pupils response to the
  onscreen tests and felt that the tests were
  delivered in a format that was very familiar
  via a computer screen. This more relaxed
  attitude to the onscreen assessments meant that
  pupils were more engaged with the process.

8
THE LESSONS LEARNT DURING THE PILOT

• There were some schools where the
  recommended specifications for the computer
  workstations were not fully met.
• Individual school networks in some
  schools had proved problematic.
• Some schools needed to invest in
  further equipment such as good quality
  headphones.
• Necessarily there were issues in some
  schools around the management of the testing.
• There was a need for a change in
  perceptions to testing with online systems.
• High quality support from Testwise
  was essential to the success of the pilot

9
FROM PILOT TO ROLLOUT

• As with any large-scale technical
  implementation, there were initially areas that
  needed some development.
• The LA worked closely with nferNelson
  to develop and deploy changes such as more user
  friendly administration tools, the use of UPN
  as a pupil identifier, on line browser
  capability checking, Flash and SEN versions of
  the tests.
• Evaluation from the pilot and high
  quality support from testwise encouraged the LA
  to continue with the rollout of onscreen testing
  to as many of its 46 Primary schools as
  possible. Although it was recognised that there
  may be issues around the technical capacity to
  carry out the tests for some of the schools.

10
THE CHALLENGE

• An audit of equipment had to be
  carried out in the primary schools to ensure
  that there was the capacity to implement the on
  screen tests.
• Trials of the Flash version of the
  tests were carried out in Primary schools using
  both schools with broadband and ISDN
  connectivity.
• A schedule of training for all 46
  primary schools was initiated during the Spring
  terms 2005 on the use of the administration
  tools and scheduling tests for pupils.
• The recent development of Portal2
  with better administration tools enabled all
  schools to be set up with users and scheduled
  tests for June 2005.

11
THE MAIN RESULTS

• The results so far have been very positive. In
  short, it is hoped that digital assessment will
  aid the LA, teachers and students in the
  following ways
• Local Authority
• It will enable easier co-ordination
  of assessments throughout the LA.
• Easier management of high quality
  assessment results across the authority.

12
THE MAIN RESULTS

• TEACHERS
• Provide teachers with additional
  support in preparing pupils for national tests
  with no extra administration work
• Aid individual planning which will
  help to raise overall school standards
• Provide instant marking and reports
  giving teachers diagnostic information that
  they need
• Enable teachers to set up their own
  questions to enable assessment for learning.
• PUPILS
• Deliver tests in a format that is
  very familiar to them via a computer screen.
• Engage them better with the
  assessments process so that they can perform
  better.

13
THE NEXT STEPS
The team at the authority are planning that by
next years round of testing, all schools on the
Isle of Wight will be using Testwise to
administer the CAT3 and SRS2 tests online. We
are also looking to make more use of the QCA
Digital Question Bank from nferNelson. The online
database of over 3,000 questions that cover the
QCA National and optional tests in maths, science
and English. We have found that teachers use of
predefined tests or a bank of questions to create
assessments targeting specific areas or topics
has been an invaluable tool in developing
assessment for learning in schools.
14
THE FUTURE
With the computer-based tests, schools have found
that students prefer the on screen tests and are
more likely to take their time and go back to
questions they found difficult to answer in their
first run-through and so potentially perform
better. The flexibility to test at any time and
receive very quick analysis from tests will lead
to a better regime in testing as appropriate for
individual pupils learning The challenge for our
schools will be to make best use of this medium
of testing as a significant tool in formative
assessment to support pupils individual learning
needs.