Drivers for Innovation and the Changing Context for Testing and Assessment Solutions

 

Practice Area Division(s): Education, Industrial/Organizational

Topic: Testing, Measurement, and Psychometrics

Session Type: Workshop

This session explores the challenges and opportunities for innovation in testing provided by the rapid changes in the educational and employments worlds. Increasing interests in gamification, demands for ever more efficient assessments deployed on mobile devices, open source technologies, MOOCs as well as crowd sourcing in education are all factors shaping the future for testing and assessment.

These trends and examples of how assessment can leverage them to drive innovation are discussed by two experienced testing professionals:

  • Craig Mills, who is Vice President of Research at CTB McGraw-Hill Education, will discuss how trends in the educational space are driving new approaches to the development of tests as well as new needs for testing in areas such as the verification of learning.

  • Eugene Burke, Chief Science & Analytics Officer at CEB, will discuss how the move to unproctored Internet testing, growing emphasis on the candidate experience as well as the drive towards more natural assessments aimed at Millennials are shaping the landscape of employment testing globally.

This session reflects a period of significant change in measurement driven by different expectations of test users and changes in education and the workplace. Many users expect more understanding of what test performance represents about a person’s ability than is provided in a single score. As technology, outsourcing, and other changes in the workplace eliminate work, jobs that were formerly routine now require higher order thinking skills and licensure and certification tests need to change to reflect those new requirements. Demands for more realistic assessment scenarios, efficient testing, and convenience for test takers also affect test design, development, and delivery.

Session attendees will have an opportunity to reflect on these changes and what they mean for maintaining the relevance and the value of valid measurement in a rapidly changing world for testing.

Presenters: Eugene Burke, CEB; Craig Mills, CTB McGraw-Hill Education