Company Blog

Supporting their mission to deliver excellence and innovation in the field of language assessment, University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL), one of the largest English Language testing bodies in the world, just launched a new, interactive, web-based learning solution to help students prepare for the speaking part of the Cambridge English: First exam.

With the help of Learnosity, Cambridge ESOL's Online Speaking Practice provides students with an authentic way to practice and refine their speaking skills. Christine Nuttall, director of Cambridge ESOL, explains:

Cambridge ESOL’s Online Speaking Practice incorporates video footage of a real Cambridge ESOL examiner asking authentic exam questions. Students can record and share their answers with teachers and friends via a URL. They can also compare their responses with videos of students giving sample answers.

As the technical solution behind Online Speaking Practice Learnosity are thrilled with the successful launch of the final product - the culmination of more than three months of hard work. Learnosity are really proud of our work as we feel that Online Speaking Practice highlights much of our expertise in the area of audio capture.

This is the first solution developed under our new "Powered by Learnosity" brand and looks set to be the first of many more. Keep your eyes open for more Learnosity-powered solutions in the near future.

Learnosity have developed a powerful new rubrics (marking) engine that will be launched by Gavin Cooney, CEO, at the ATP Conference in Phoenix this week.

We are delighted to release these new marking schemes which will allow for better, more flexible marking, some examples of which are shown below.

Marking Interface

• The solution supports single, double marking and 'n' marking. 
• Markers log on to a secure web interface to view the tests assigned to them.
• Different markers can be assigned entire tests, certain questions or sections of the tests.
• A second marker will not have access to the marks/feedback provided by the first marker. 
• Once the second marker has given a grade or some feedback the exam will no longer be available for another marker.

The table below outlines the feedback types and how they can be displayed to the candiate.

Sample Marking Options

Our marking schemes are very flexible and marking can be implemented in practically every way.  Below are some popular marking schemes that give a flavour of what is possible.  Marks can be assigned to each individual question or to a group of questions. 

Single Criteria

In the example shown here, a marker listens online to three responses, then determines which grade best reflects the student’s overall performance and just clicks the radio button to apply that grade in respect of the 3 answers.

Audio Feedback

In this example markers listen to the audio response and then give a score out of 10 (or any other number).  Written comment and/or audio feedback can also be left for the student.  This can be very useful for addressing particular issues, for example, a candidate that may tend to mis-pronounce a particular word.

Multiple Criteria

This enables the marker to listen to the response and then assign an individual grade for each of a number of elements.  For a language assignment these may be based on fluency, comprehensibility and coherence. 

Checkboxes

By using checkboxes, innovative assessments can be created where a candidate listens to a story and then retells that story as best they can.  The marker uses check boxes to indicate if key elements were included in the student’s versions.  Scores are based then on the numbers of boxes that have been checked. 

Showing the marking scheme (Rubric)

By clicking the (i) icon, markers and students can view the description of each grade and the requirements needed to achieve a particular grade.  The option to show the information to candiates can be disabled.

If you would like to talk to us about your marking requirements, please do Contact Us.

Our developers have just completed some additional security measures for our Learnosity OnScreen assessment platform which dramatically enhances it's performance on Apple OSX machines and brings it to feature parity with the Windows versions.

The key change is full support for Kiosk mode on OSX 10.5 and 10.6 which provides the following functionality:

• Full screen mode (Application on primary screen goes full screen, and locks up all other screens).
• Key window always kept on top of other windows.
• Spotlight menu is disabled.
• Dock is entirely unavailable.
• Menu Bar is entirely unavailable.
• All Apple menu items are disabled.
• Cmd+Tab UI is disabled.
• All Exposé functionality is also disabled.
• Cmd+Opt+Esc panel is disabled.
• Restart/Log Out are disabled.
• Application "Hide" menu item is disabled.
• The transparent appearance of the menu bar is disabled.
• Cleans up the system pasteboard when the application starts.

This works on all Mac systems since October 2007, eg OSX 10.5 and above.

In this video, I will explain how the Learnosity Voice interface is easily customisable. This includes the language of the web and voice interfaces, and how all features can be turned on and off as required.

For example, when a student or teacher logs into the Irish government installation of Learnosity Voice, the entire interface is in the Irish language. The interface can be changed to English is required by the user.

Every single text item in the student, teacher and administration interfaces come from a language file that we call a resource bundle. To create a new language here, we simply edit this file in a spreadsheet.

Resource bundles are also useful for changing terminology in English language interface. For example:

• For the Learning Federation in Australia, we used the word “conversation”.
• For the Open University we use the word “session”.
• In New South Wales we use the word test.

The video also shows how in various installations, certain items are enabled and disabled as required, so that students and teachers never have to see an item that is irrelevant to them.

Also, fully customisable is the voice interface. We simply record each prompt in the language and accent we require.

The video includes excerpts from calls from some of Learnosity’s installations. For example, The Le@rning Federation voice interface was recorded in English with an Australian accent. The Irish project is an example of the same interface in the Irish language. Another English language example is the Open University in the UK.

More Learnosity Demo/ How-to Videos.

Learnosity's OnScreen assessment and learning technology allows for the delivery of tests to students efficiently and effectively. It is designed from the ground up to handle "High Stakes" exams on diverse school systems.

Uniquely, Learnosity OnScreen has been developed specifically to deliver assessments that are completely accessible to students with a wide range of disabilities and special needs. These include the provision of:

• Size-modifiable texts/images
• Pause-test buttons
• Individually set extra time provisions
• Use of screen-reader software for totally blind students
• Pre-recorded audio questions
• Keyboard-based navigation for students with mobility issues.

The system is already used by the NSW Board of Studies in Sydney to deliver huge numbers of onscreen assessments.

We have now made a demonstration website available. Please feel free to have a look.

If you are interested to learn more about the product, and ongoing developments, we would love to hear from you.

This week, I am attending the CCSSO National Conference On Student Assessment in Orlando Florida. So far I have attended some fascinating sessions on large scale e-Assessment, and the assessment of English Language Learners.

It was particularly interesting for me to hear representatives of the Departments of Education in Indiana, Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma speak about the lessons learned from e-Testing at the State level. These lessons are remarkably similar to the lessons Learnosity and the NSW Board of Studies have been learning in Australia by delivering the Computing Skills Test online over the past number of years. Everything from administration, staffing, training, scheduling, reporting, communicating with participant schools and students, test design, special needs examinations (the list goes on and on), are echoed in our experiences in New South Wales.

What I did find surprising was to hear a number of speakers in various sessions mention the mandatory use of on-screen testing, with the "obvious exception" of students with special needs- such as large text, different colours, extra time, blind users etc. It seems that Learnosity is unique in the fact that our on-screen assessments have been built from the ground up with the special needs students in mind... most assessment vendors seem to be struggling with such special provisions.

I look forward to another few days of stimulating presentations.

At the international CeBIT Conference at Darling Harbour, Dr John Bennett accepted two awards for IT Innovation given by the Australian Government Chief Information Officer Ann Stewart.

The projects in question are:

• Assessment Resource Center
• Vision Impaired Version of Statewide Online Computing Skills Test

Learnosity is proud to be involved with these projects and delighted that the NSW Board of Studies have been recognised for their ground breaking work.

You can read the summaries of all the projects on the AGIMO Awards website.

Last week at the Innovations in Testing Conference in Dallas, I was lucky enough to speak to Barbara Henderson from the Accessible Tests Department of the American Printing House for the Blind. She has sent me links to some of their research, which is very relevant to anyone interested delivering accessible on screen examinations.

While we already use a suitable sans-serif font, the APH have developed a special font for optimal readability.

They have also published a full guide to Making Tests Accessible for Students with Visual Impairments. After giving the guide a quick read, we're delighted to see Learnosity's OnScreen assessment products conform to the relevant areas here.

The following are some of the other links which I found very useful. They are a must-read for anyone delivering assessments.

• Guidelines for Design of Tactile Graphics
• An Accommodations Guide for Parents and Students with Visual Impairments American Foundation for the Blind, 2005.
• Checklist for Administration of Tests to Students with Visual Impairments American Foundation for the Blind, 2005.
• Considerations for the Development and Review of Universally Designed Assessments National Center for Educational Outcomes (NCEO), Technical Report #42, November 2005.
• New Issues in Assessment for Children with Visual Impairments EnVision, Spring 2005.

There were some great insights into the Indian and worldwide education systems and some excellent discussion and ideas to move it forward.

I had the pleasure of meeting many people from all aspects of education including government officials, academics, vice-chancellors, investors and private entrepreneurs and from all over the world including the India, USA, Mauritius, China, Malaysia and more.

I had the privilege of speaking about some of our innovative products in a session titled "Innovative Approaches in Evaluation & Assessment". The presentation went down very well and there was considerable interest particularly in the Voice based applications.

Thanks for a great time and I look forward to making it back to India soon.

Mark