Future of assessment is top of the agenda at Cambridge conference

On Wednesday 17 April, an international audience attended Cambridge’s Assessment Network’s latest conference: ‘Assessment Horizons and Assessment Principles: Navigating the future together’.

The conference emphasised the importance of bringing practitioners together from a diverse range of assessment and educational backgrounds.

Throughout the day, over 200 practitioners exchanged knowledge and discussed some of the key questions in assessment today. The focus of the conference on ‘assessment futures’ was developed based on a survey of over 300 educationalists.

Presentations and discussion at the conference covered:
·       Digital assessment: opportunities and challenges
·       Artificial Intelligence (AI) and assessment
·       Assessment futures
·       Ethics and fairness in assessment
·       Principles of assessment

These topics were explored in the context of seeking to create a future in which assessment is of the highest quality and greatest utility; a future which is evidence-based – not one which consists of pendulum swings and ‘one step forward, three steps back’.

Morgan Dee, Director of AI and Data Science at EDUCATE Ventures Research, presenting on AI and assessment at the conference.

Morgan Dee, Director of AI and Data Science at EDUCATE Ventures Research, presenting on AI and assessment at the conference.

What do digital development and AI mean for assessment?

The massive improvements to AI large language models over the past two years pose both threats and opportunities for fair and valuable assessment. The conference reflected this tension; several sessions throughout the day explored the challenges and possibilities of AI.

For example, George Vlachonikolis, Assistant Head of Teaching & Learning at Headington School, spoke about ways teachers can use AI in the classroom to support effective assessment.

Meanwhile, in another session, Gwyneth Toolan, Innovation Product Manager at RM plc, conducted a live experiment in which four multilingual Cambridge employees used AI to translate text items – an exercise which made evident how this technology is broadly impressive, yet still has plenty of room to improve in terms of accuracy.

Cambridge’s approach

The Assessment Network focuses on developing a professional community of people from many different sectors, concentrating on development, application and evaluation of assessment approaches.

People who join the community established by The Assessment Network typically include examiners, assessment writers, professional bodies, teachers, lecturers and those working for exam boards or awarding organisations.

The Assessment Network places significant value on building public understanding of the principles of assessment. These principles include validity, reliability, fairness, standards, comparability and utility and manageability of assessment.

Sally Brown, Director of The Assessment Network, said:

“Transparency and understanding around the guiding principles of assessment helps to build trust in assessment itself. For all stakeholders – teachers, learners, examiners, and many more – having better understanding of assessment, enables them to understand what goes into it to make it fair.

“The Assessment Network seeks to explain and demystify assessment. We promote the knowledge and practice of what makes assessment work well so that more practitioners are supported in creating the best possible assessments for learners.”

Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research Division, said:

“What’s great about The Assessment Network is the knowledge exchange which I see amongst members. A lot can go wrong with assessment – from poor design to misuse of data from assessment. Establishing a community of highly professional developers, practitioners and users is key to ensuring the highest quality and utility in examinations and other forms of assessment, around the globe. This multinational conference showed just how strong the impetus towards professionalisation in assessment is.”

Sally Brown, Director of The Assessment Network at Cambridge

Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research Division at Cambridge

Recordings of the conference will be available to members of The Assessment Network. Find out more about joining this thriving community.