2024 Exam Sector Review
A curious year for the assessment sector. $25M fines for exam cheating. UK spluttering on plans for digitising school exams. A regulator...
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Nov 233 min read
How much is the UK exam sector worth? And what’s your Total Addressable Market?
What is the UK exam sector worth?
Jan 293 min read
A sure BETT? Why the Absent Punner’s 'snap and sneer' stunts digital exam adoption, and ignores learner impact.
The long-running UK exhibition BETT is a nexus for global ed-tech folk. There are plenty of visitors and booth workers, usually away from...
Jan 172 min read
Are digital exams given a free (green) pass?
Are digital exams given a free (green) pass? Environmental evidence is still sparse, but lower power, sustainable computers may be an answer
Jan 163 min read
The new Metric Martyrs? Are digital exams really the same as paper ones?
England’s school exam owners are preparing to offer GCSE digital exams and their paper equivalent in parallel. But is that fair? Is one...
Jan 123 min read
Love Professional Career Invigilators! Leave Resting Actors to pull pints.
The tide is turning on casual exam invigilators. Career folk invigilating every day versus apathetic people wishing they were elsewhere....
Jan 92 min read
"But We Don't Have Enough Computers!" Delivering digital exams for UK schools
The main four England and Wales General Qualifications exam owners have set out their digital school exam stall. It's shook many digital...
Jan 42 min read
24 years ago we moved a big exam from paper to on-screen
Moving a 1.5M paper test to on-screen delivery
Dec 10, 20234 min read
2023 in Review
2023 was a seismic year in assessment. Many learners returned to an exam hall for the first time in a number of years. Three UK exam...
Dec 5, 20232 min read
Crisis, what crisis?
Last week's Federation of Awarding Bodies conference was an eye-opener. But not for the reasons you may think. What’s the...
Dec 3, 20223 min read
From Wallflower to Dance Captain – three steps for our sector to lead assessment debate.
Everyday, global exam sector stories ping my news trackers - white-hot opportunities to grapple assessment issues. But too often, those...
Jan 16, 20211 min read
Who needs facts when a shrieking headline does the job?
This week, a well-known publication ran an exam tech story, about insecure software being used. You might know that Adobe doesn't support...
Jun 18, 20209 min read
Boom and Bust - English Language Exams
How English language digital exams impact learners
Jun 14, 20204 min read
Finding a way to win – why does e-Assessment love FE?
I'm absolutely delighted at the strides the Further Education (FE) sector has made with e-Assessment since my 2007 FE News article. No...
Dec 12, 20194 min read
The Comeback Kid: Is formative assessment back for good?
Seldom a day passes without calls to reduce summative exams, replacing them with the measurement of soft ‘21st Century’ skills. But how...
Jan 30, 20193 min read
When data gets uncomfortable - how does better assessment change UK university admission?
The UK university sector is witnessing seismic changes. The undergraduate application sector-governed body called UCAS will shortly...
Jan 13, 20172 min read
Stop that cheat! Why successful qualifications need both confidence and technology
Confidence is key to exam programmes. Management of risk and protecting the public from unlicensed or imperfectly trained learners is...
Dec 13, 20165 min read
Assessment Security – helping to maintain exam credibility
The BBC Panorama investigative story on UK television this evening, regarding the compromise of the TOEIC exam is the story of the...
Aug 31, 20152 min read
2015 Report Review: Centre Readiness for eAssessment: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.
This research report from 2014 is now publicly available via the three UK regulators, SQA, CCEA and Welsh Government. It looks at the...
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