E-Assessment Toolkit

Registering with an Awarding Body
Candidates will normally be registered with an awarding body and entered to take their e-test at the centre where they undertake their learning programme. However, the test may be taken at a different centre or location, or indeed a test may be offered completely independently of any particular learning programme

E-Test location and equipment
Centres should ensure that they have the relevant information about hardware, software and communication requirements from the awarding body well in advance of the e-test session. This should include any assessment-specific information such as special fonts or character sets, or any reference materials or aids, like calculators, that need to be provided by the centre.

Materials Preparation
The awarding body should provide clear instructions on use of the assessment materials, ensuring that everything is valid and working correctly, including logging onto the test, and security procedures for transmitting test data.
Problems or issues that arise at this stage of the process should be fed back to the awarding body or allocated representatives for immediate resolution, as they may affect the feasibility or validity of the e-test.

Preparing learners for e-testing
The centre is responsible for ensuring that learners are ready and prepared for e-testing.  It is essential that centre staff are fully trained and competent to answer questions about navigation and the types of question used within e-tests, in order to help prepare candidates for taking a formal e-test. They may also need to answer navigation questions during the actual e-test.

Additional support information is available in the published “e-Assessment – Guide to effective practice”, see section 3.4.  A number of checklists are also available.