About

Project Summary
A final report giving an overview of Pass-IT, indicating the scale of the project and including some observations and findings from the project.

The Project

The project has developed and researched the impact of ICT-based assessments for both formative and summative testing. ICT-based assessment can be used to test knowledge, comprehension and applications in a range of different subjects, using various technologies. These ICT-based assessments should:

• stimulate the educational process by enhancing the flexibility of teaching and learning, while reducing the administrative burden on teachers and lecturers
• map the way forward for assessment for the future.

Over 29 months, the project has created, piloted and evaluated a number of different approaches to ICT-based assessment in schools and colleges throughout Scotland. Results have been disseminated over two phases of the project, to students, teaching professionals and parents.

Overall, the project aimed to establish the Scottish education sector as a leader in investigating and developing appropriate and useful ICT-based assessments in the UK, bringing together the best from previous smaller scale projects which had already given Scotland a profile in this area.

The Outcomes

The project has created, piloted and evaluated a number of different approaches to ICT-based assessment in schools and colleges throughout Scotland and was split into two parts - Phase 1 ran from August 2002 to October 2003, and Phase 2 from November 2003 to December 2004. The outcomes of the project include:

• a research report examining the viability and applicability of ICT-based assessments
• guidelines on quality assurance for ICT-based assessments
• good practice documentation on question writing
• staff development and training activities for colleges and schools
• recommendations for future activities and development
• updates and dissemination events for students, parents, teachers and institutions
• recommendations on a national implementation strategy.

Deliverables from these outcomes can be accessed on the Project Materials page.

In addition, the project has sought to develop assessment technologies to enable the authoring of a range of ICT-based assessments in different subjects, including:

• ICT based assessments to support nine national courses (Phases 1 and 2)
• ICT based assessments to support the revised HNC in Computing (Phase 1).

An example of a range of these questions can be found in the PASS-IT Demo.