New approaches and challenges to e-assessment presented in a JRC report
To what extent can ICT contribute to support assessment in today’s context and what can policy do for ensuring transition from traditional to e-assessment and its effective implementation? A new report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, “The Transition to Computer-Based Assessment. New Approaches to Skills Assessment and Implications for Large-scale Testing”, provides an insight into this complex issue. Although there is a strong need of further research in the field, the conclusions show that the complexity of computer-based testing related issues to take into account increases with the use of computer technology. But still, it would be a wrong consequence to stop further activities because of the complexity of the challenges, as the potential benefits far outweigh the problems.
The report, edited by Friedrich Scheuermann and Julius Björnsson, gathers paper presentations and conclusions from the research workshop “The Transition to Computer-based Assessment – Lessons learned from the PISA 2006 Computer Based Assessment of Sciences (CBAS) and implications for large scale testing”, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 29 September-1 October 2008. Furthermore, it includes a variety of additional articles covering the most relevant issues addressed by the workshop.
The papers are grouped into five sections focusing each on the following topics:
- Assessment needs and European approaches, in the context of comparative surveys on the use for educational policy;
- General issues of computer-based testing, including experiences and challenges posed;
- Moving from Paper-and-pencil Testing to Computer-based Testing, dedicated to experiences and reflections on the transition between these two different ways of assessment;
- Methodologies of Computer-based Testing, where design, testing and interpretation of results are discussed;
- The PISA Computer-based Assessment of Scientific literacy, focusing on the experiences made with the PISA 2006 pilot study in computer-based assessment of science (CBAS).
The full report “The Transition to Computer-Based Assessment. New Approaches to Skills Assessment and Implications for Large-scale Testing” is available in the Insight Library at:
http://resources.eun.org/insight/reporttransition.pdf