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  • B
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  • C
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  • D
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  • E
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  • F
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  • G
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  • H
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  • I
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  • J
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  • K
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  • L
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  • M
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  • N
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  • O
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  • P
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  • Q
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  • R
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  • S
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  • T
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  • U
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  • V
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  • W
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  • X
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  • Y
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  • Z

A

Accessibility

Admin

Assessment

The process of making judements about the extent to which a candidate’s work meets the assessment criteria for a qualification or unit, or part of a unit.

Assessment Objective

A single unit of knowledge, skills or understanding that a test is designed to assess in a candidate, usually set in the context of the programme of study as part of the test specification.

Assessor

The person who assesses a candiate’s work.

Awarding Body

An organisation or consortium that awards qualifications. To be eligible to award accredited qualifications in the non-higher education sectors (for example in schools, colleges and workplace training), awarding bodies must meet the requirements of the regulatory authorities.

Awarding Body

An organisation or consortium that awards qualifications. To be eligible to award accredited qualifications in the non-higher education sectors (for example in schools, colleges and workplace training), awarding bodies must meet the requirements of the regulatory authorities.

B

Becta

A UK government agency which supports all four UK nations’ education departments in their strategic ICT developments. See http://www.becta.org.uk

Blended Assessment

An assessment regime which combines traditional (paper-based) assessment and electronic (digital) assessment.

C

Certificate

The record of attainment in a unit or qualification for an individual issued by the awarding body.

D

DCELLS

Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills and qualifications regulator in Wales. Formerly DELLS

E

E-assessment

The end-to-end electronic assessment processes where ICT is used for the presentation of assessment activity and the recording of responses. This includes the end-to-end assessment process from the perspective of learners, tutors, learning establishments, awarding bodies and regulators, and the general public.

e-Marking

A generic term for all the ways that the use of ICT can co-ordinate to the marking of assessments.

e-Marking

A generic term for all the ways that the use of ICT can co-ordinate to the marking of assessments.

E-portfolio

An electronically based file store and information management system which is modelled on the working method used for paper portfolios, but which takes advantage of the capabilities of ICT. the learner builds and maintains a digital respository of artefacts, which they can use to demonstrate competence (in a summative assessment setting) and/or reflect on their learning ( in a formative setting)

Note: Within e-assessment, e-portfolios are generally related to a particular course over a particular period of time, and designed for assessment purposes. However, in other settings portfolios may also or alternatively be a ‘complete learning life record’, where students have access to their records, digital repository, feedback and on reflection students can acheive a greater understanding of their individual growth, career planning and cv building.

E-Test

An assessment presented to the candidate on screen.

External assessment

An assessment which is set/and or marked by examiners who are not associated with the organisation providing the candidate’s learning.

F

Fair assessment

Assessment which is free of any bias, that is free of any factor that disorts the true measurement of the candidate’s ability or achievement. Sources of bias can include factors in test design (accessibility, question design and content) and test delivery (physical conditions during assessment) and marking.

Formative Assessment

Assessment that has a primary objective developmental feedback (item, topic and/or assessment level) to a student ( and perhaps also their teacher) to adjust the plan for future learning. As such it usually takes place during the learning programme (rather than at the end - summative, or beginning - diognostic)

I

Initial assessment

A relatively short assessment of a learner which may follow a screening test and which is designed to determine approximately the general level of knowledge or competence.

Item Bank

A storage facility for items which allows them to maintained and used for automatic and manual test generation purposes ( to create tests on paper and/ or on screen). Today, almost all item banks are electronic although although historically many were physical.

J

JANET

The Joint Academic NETwork, is a British private, governent funded computer network dedicated to education and research. All further and higher organisations organisations are connected to JANET, as are all the research councils and several metropolitan area networks in the UK.

JISC

The Joint Information committee. An independant advisory body that works with further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use ICT to support learning, teaching, research and administration. JISC is funded by the UK Further and Higher Education Councils and is responsible for the development of this e-assessment glossary.

N

NQF

National Qualifications Framework. Sets out the levels (from Entry to 8 increasing with ability) at which qualifications can be recognised in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

O

Offline assessment

An on-screen assessment which is conducted without using an internet connection during the test (although an internet connection may be used to deliver the test to the client computer prior to the test starting, and to upload the candidate responses once the test has been completed.

On-demand assessment

Used in examinations. Assessment where there is a high degree of flexibility in the date and time that tests can be offered to suit the student or their learning programme (although it may not necessarily include all days, times and dates). In contrast to many traditional assessments which are provided on a fixed date and time (or a limited range of dates and times).

Q

QCF

Qualifications and Credit Framework. A unit based qualification framework underpinned by a system of credit accummmulation and transfer.

Qualification Regulators

The three bodies in England , Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for the regulation of all externally accredited qualifications outside higher education.

S

Security (technical)

The technical measures employed in computer software and hardware to prevent unauthorised access to content when stored on a computer or in transmission from one computer to another.

Summative assessment

An assessment generally undertaken at the end of a learning activity or programme of learning which is used to make a judgement on the candidate’s overall achievement. A key purpose of summative assessment is to record and often grade, the candidate’s performance in relation tothe the stated learning objectives of the programme.

V

VLE

A virtual learning enviroment is a set of learning and teaching tools based on networked computer resources (ICT) which provide a focus for students learning activities and their management and facilitation, along with the provision of content and resource required to help make the activities successful. The functions considered standard in a VLE are curriculum mapping, student tracking, communications tools, tutor and student support, assessment and learning delivery tools. VLE is sometimes used interchangeably with MLE (managed learning enviroment) but an MLE can also be defined as comprising the complete learning enviroment, including a VLE and offline elements.