Blogs

The Digital High Stakes Assessment Programme is developing innovative assessments and using evidence to inform their design. This blog, a literature review of open book, open web assessments (OBOW), describes what we mean by OBOW, and the pros and cons of this assessment approach.

Comparability, or the extent to which standards are similar, between paper and digital assessments can be a concern. In this blog researchers Sarah Hughes and Gill Elliot explain what we mean by comparability when talking about digital assessment, and how our Digital High Stakes Assessment Programme is balancing innovation and comparability of outcomes.

What should assessment practitioners be aware of when considering accessibility and inclusion in assessment? Cambridge Assessment Network spoke with Senior Research Managers Sylwia Macinska and Carla Pastorino about universally designed assessment, equity of access and trends in assistive technology.

Digital assessment is growing from strength to strength. Besides innovative new assessments – including those integrated within learning tools – there’s demand for existing high stakes assessments to be available on screen. But it's not as simple as migrating all our existing paper tests onto screen. In this blog, we zoom in on the particularities of maths and science.

This is the final part of the latest 3-part series from Loic Menzies as part of our #MappingTheWay discussion series. “The Real Glue is Relationships” will ask whether, what we might need, is a more fundamental shift in focus towards continuity and relationships.

This is part 2 of the latest 3-part series from Loic Menzies as part of our #MappingTheWay discussion series. “Making Information Work for Young People” will zoom in on a topic that has been somewhat neglected in recent debates: the role and agency of young people themselves.

A lack of ‘system thinking’ has stymied the sector’s ability to gather, share and act on information about vulnerable young people’s needs. “Putting the Glue Back in the System” will set out some of the approaches education practitioners are attempting within the current system. Part 1 of a 3-part series that forms part of our #MappingTheWay discussion series with Loic Menzies.

In this blog, Dr. Neil Gilbride, Senior Lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire, talks about schools and why they are tricky places to navigate and understand. He then sets out the implications this has for the decisions teachers and school leaders need to make on a day-to-day basis.

How did different organisations offering assessments respond to the pandemic? and what could that tell us about the future of assessment delivery? Cambridge Assessment Network spoke with Sarah Corcoran, Director of e-Assessment Transformation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) about moving to Computer-Based Assessment, and how learning and assessment in her industry is changing in relation to technology drivers.

This is the final instalment of a four-part blog series setting out the key considerations to come from our first #MappingTheWay event with Loic Menzies. This one looks at the different ways information and data can be interpreted - and the effect those interpretations have on stakeholders' behaviour.

At an expert roundtable in earlier this year we brought together key voices from the education sector to discuss the barriers to equity in education, and the information policy makers might need to improve it. Here, attendees Hardip Begol and Sammy Wright reflect on the discussion and share their thoughts on these perennial yet but crucial questions for any education system that aspires to equity.

This is the third in our four-part blog series setting out the key considerations to come from our latest #MappingTheWay event. This one explores why the supply of opportunities beyond the classroom is important, and how we can shape education to unlock them.

There are so many changes to education that it can be difficult to keep track of them all or remember what they were about. In this blog, Nicky Rushton talks about the Register of Change and the latest additions to it covering the effects of COVΙD-19 on schooling, general qualifications and vocational and technical qualifications.

This is the second in a four-part blog series that will set out the key considerations to come from the event. Part one focused on the need to look at young people across the distribution. This one discusses how we can build up a fuller, picture of young people’s lives to inform a more nuanced approach to improving outcomes.

As part of our SHAPE Education initiative, Cambridge University Press & Assessment is hosting monthly ‘SHAPE Live’ debates with experts on the future of education. On Tuesday, 1 March we discussed how, as educators and an education system, we can personalise learning. Brendan Wightman, secondary digital publishing lead (English) at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, reflects on the recent event.

All examinations contain a mix of questions that vary in how they discriminate between student ability. Providing advance information (an intervention that is intended to make certain questions on an examination easier) will affect the difficulty of questions in different ways. Tom Bramley, Director of the Research Division, asks whether providing advance information could benefit some students more than others.