Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank

The COLA project has been developing a large bank of assessment items for units across the Scottish further education curriculum since May 2003. These will be made available to learners mainly via colleges' virtual learning environments (VLEs). Many people have been involved in the develo...

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Main Authors: Niall Sclater, Mary MacDonald
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association for Learning Technology 2004-12-01
Series:Research in Learning Technology
Online Access:http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/11254
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author Niall Sclater
Mary MacDonald
author_facet Niall Sclater
Mary MacDonald
author_sort Niall Sclater
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description The COLA project has been developing a large bank of assessment items for units across the Scottish further education curriculum since May 2003. These will be made available to learners mainly via colleges' virtual learning environments (VLEs). Many people have been involved in the development of the COLA assessment item bank to ensure a high level of technical and pedagogical quality. Processes have included deciding on appropriate item types and subject areas, training authors, peer-reviewing and quality assuring the items and assessments, and ensuring they are tagged with appropriate metadata. One of the biggest challenges has been to ensure that the assessments are deliverable across the four main virtual learning environments in use in Scottish colleges–and also through a stand-alone assessment system. COLA is significant because no other large project appears to have successfully developed standards-compliant assessment content for delivery across multiple VLEs. This paper discusses how COLA has dealt with the organizational, pedagogical and technical issues which arise when commissioning items from many authors for delivery across an educational sector.
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spelling doaj.art-c3090e0788a94c7798f1a9c7eb30cfee2022-12-22T03:08:30ZengAssociation for Learning TechnologyResearch in Learning Technology2156-70692156-70772004-12-0112310.3402/rlt.v12i3.11254Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bankNiall SclaterMary MacDonaldThe COLA project has been developing a large bank of assessment items for units across the Scottish further education curriculum since May 2003. These will be made available to learners mainly via colleges' virtual learning environments (VLEs). Many people have been involved in the development of the COLA assessment item bank to ensure a high level of technical and pedagogical quality. Processes have included deciding on appropriate item types and subject areas, training authors, peer-reviewing and quality assuring the items and assessments, and ensuring they are tagged with appropriate metadata. One of the biggest challenges has been to ensure that the assessments are deliverable across the four main virtual learning environments in use in Scottish colleges–and also through a stand-alone assessment system. COLA is significant because no other large project appears to have successfully developed standards-compliant assessment content for delivery across multiple VLEs. This paper discusses how COLA has dealt with the organizational, pedagogical and technical issues which arise when commissioning items from many authors for delivery across an educational sector.http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/11254
spellingShingle Niall Sclater
Mary MacDonald
Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
Research in Learning Technology
title Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
title_full Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
title_fullStr Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
title_full_unstemmed Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
title_short Putting interoperability to the test: building a large reusable assessment item bank
title_sort putting interoperability to the test building a large reusable assessment item bank
url http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/11254
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