News
TAG Announces new Social Media Assessment Tools
TAG Developments, the e-assessment division of Sherston Software Ltd is pleased to announce the completion of work to develop two brand new tools for assessing student evidence and interaction that is generated through the use of Social Media.
Working in partnership with its Singapore partner iGINE Pte. Ltd. and as part of a contract won with the Infocomm Development Agency of Singapore to create Collaborative Online Learning Tools (see http://tagdevelopments.com/news/90 for further details), TAG has completed the necessary development work to release these highly innovative social media assessment tools to pilot schools in Singapore.
There are many advantages to using social media to support formal and informal learning - it engages learners through a familiar medium that they are already using, that is highly collaborative and provides equal opportunity for all learners, and that also encourages Real Life Skills, such as sharing knowledge and developing dynamic/adaptive learning. However, there are also challenges for teachers in using social media as a mechanism for assessment, including there being a wide range of disparate social media tools that students can use, leading to lots of potential evidence, which can be difficult for a teacher to untangle in order to get to the real evidence of learning and collaboration.
TAG's new social media assessment tools allow teachers to untangle the huge potential volume of evidence created within a range of social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter and MSN Messenger through the use of Latent Semantic Indexing, which enables the system to “suggest” how pieces of student’s work may demonstrate meeting certain learning objectives. However, the system goes further than this and also utilises Social Networking Analysis (Centrality) to help teachers assess interaction and group dynamics.
These exciting new tools are now being piloted in Singapore in both primary and secondary schools and TAG is also in discussions with UK based accreditation bodies about how these tools could be utilised to deliver authentic and manageable assessment as an integral part of 21st Century learning.
For further details about these highly innovative tools please contact Matt Wingfield, Managing Director - TAG Developments on 0203 176 0394 or matt.wingfield@sherston.com
TAG Developmemnts wins Assessment Contract in Sweden
TAG Developments, the e-assessment division of Sherston Software Ltd, has won a contract to pilot its highly innovative Adaptive Comparative Judgement and LiveAssess assessment systems with Skolverket, the Swedish National Agency for Education. The pilot was awarded to TAG in October 2011 and will run until February 2012.
The context of the pilot will be to use TAG's technology in the delivery and assessment of National Tests in four key subject areas:
• English
• Design Technology
• Swedish for immigrants
• Swedish as a native language
TAG's LiveAssess assessment system was originally developed in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London as part of a five year research project called 'e-Scape'. The tool allows teachers to create structured activities that provide students with a mechanism for capturing project based learning dynamically as it happens in the classroom and so is ideal for supporting coursework and other learning scenarios where capturing the process of learning, rather than just the final outcome is important. Within this pilot LiveAssess will be used to support the capture of project based learning in the context of Design Technology.
TAG's Adaptive Comparative Judgement system provides an unparalleled mechanism for assessing student work using the collective professional judgement of several judges, rather than relying solely on the judgement of a single marker. This approach dramatically reduces the influence of personal subjectivity on the assessments and thus increases the reliability of the assessment and can be used to assess a wide range of student evidence from scanned written scripts, through rich-media portfolios, to spoken responses, enabling highly reliable results whilst maintaining the validity/authenticity of the assessment.
This pilot will build on the successful use of Adaptive Comparative Judgement carried out through a number of pilots over the last two years by the QCDA (Key Stage 3 Writing Tests); the Scottish Qualifications Agency (English Essay marking); Ministry of Education Singapore (Media-rich student portfolios in Social Studies) and the Curriculum Council of Western Australian (end of school leaving exams).
For further details please contact Matt Wingfield, Managing Director, TAG Developments, on 0203 176 0394 or matt.wingfield@sherston.com
Planet Sherston: Adaptive Learning Engine
TAG Developments, the development division of Sherston Software is pleased to announce the completion and integration of the “Adaptive Learning Engine” into Sherston's flagship online product, Planet Sherston. The Adaptive Learning Engine is designed to support teachers, automatically creating a course of activities based on an individual pupil’s attainment and dynamically evolving as the child progresses.
The Adaptive Learning Engine uses an intelligent algorithm to create and assign sets of learning activity packages that support progression and improvements in attainment levels. The algorithm continually updates the activities assigned as it collects data on scores achieved, time spent, number of attempts etc. and also continually improves itself as it learns which activities best serve each pathway.
The comprehensive reporting features of Planet Sherston then allows the teacher in real-time to view the child's performance, as well as a summary of the ‘I can statements’ the student has achieved mapped to national curriculum levels. Keeping the teacher in firm control, this will be a feature that can be enabled/ disabled by the teacher at pupil, class and school level.
For further information please contact Reeza Awoodun, Group Marketing Director on 07810 878585 or reeza.awoodun@sherston.com.
TAG Developments at the London Moodle Conference – 14th March
TAG Developments will be exhibiting and speaking at the London Moodle Conference being organized by the Moodle Partner – Webanywhere, on Monday 14th March at the Woburn House Conference Centre, Tavistock Square, London.
The conference will bring practitioners and suppliers together to discuss the use of Moodle to support learning, with a particular focus on upgrading to Moodle 2.0.
As experts in the provision of e-assessment tools, TAG Developments will be showing and talking about its e-assessment tools for Moodle, including Red Pen Tool – the award winning on-screen marking tool, and LiveAssess – the revolutionary tool for capturing Project Based Learning.
For more details on the conference, please visit Webanywhere’s website at:
TAG Developments wins two major pilot project contracts in Singapore
TAG Developments, in partnership with iGINE Pte Ltd, a Singapore based software development company, has successfully bid for and been awarded two e-assessment contracts by the Singapore Government.
The first contract has been awarded by the Infocomm Development Agency of Singapore (IDA) and is a ground breaking 18 month pilot project looking into the development of a range of e-assessment tools to help teachers track and credit student learning generated through the use of social media. The project will utilise TAG's award-winning range of e-assessment tools, including MAPS, LiveAssess and The Red Pen Tool, but will also see the creation of a new and highly innovative range of teacher analytic tools, designed to seamlessly integrate with students' use of popular social media tools such as Facebook, and to be used as an integrated part of schools' existing Learning Management Systems (Learning Platforms/VLEs). This advanced technology platform will be adapted to the exact requirements of the Singapore context, and iGINE will play a key role in providing localization and support efforts that delivers a fit-for-purpose system to the schools. This project is being funded by grant contributions from IDA, as well as by internal investment from TAG Developments and TAG's local Singapore based partner iGINE Pte. Ltd. (http://www.igine.com).
The second contract has been awarded to TAG by the Curriculum Planning and Development Division of the Ministry of Education in Singapore. This pilot project will be focused on the use of TAG's existing e-assessment tools, including MAPS, LiveAssess and the Red Pen Tool, to investigate the use of e-assessment tools in supporting teaching and learning within Social Studies. It will also utilise TAG's revolutionary Comparative Pairs Assessment Engine to provide a new, less subjective and highly reliable approach to the assessment of student work produced through the pilot, which will involve two secondary and two primary schools.
TAG Developments' Managing Director, Matt Wingfield said "Singapore is a wonderfully vibrant society that embraces change and rises to the challenges of the modern world. Their approach to education actively encourages new learning paradigms with enthusiasm at all levels. We are therefore absolutely delighted to have been chosen to work with IDA and the Ministry on these two ground breaking pilot projects and we really look forward to working with the government and the pilot schools."
Yak Hong Beng, iGINE’s Managing Director, said, “We are glad to be playing a major part in helping to shape how future students learn in Singapore schools. Our partnership with TAG Developments marries an advanced and mature educational technology platform with the intimate knowledge of the local educational context and requirements in Singapore. This allows iGINE to adapt TAG’s range of award-winning e-assessment tools to the exact needs of local schools and to provide effective local support to them. We are confident that the synergy of this strategic partnership will lead to a whole new world of e-learning possibilities that will excite teachers and students alike.”
Notes to editors:
About TAG Developments – TAG Developments, the award-winning software development division of BLi Education, is a highly regarded value-added team of educational specialists, web developers and project managers who have specialised in creating market leading web-based e-learning, e-portfolio, e-assessment solutions and innovative educational community websites for the UK education market since 1997. TAG Developments' solutions not only facilitate e-assessment within schools, but they also provide accreditation and awarding bodies with mechanisms that enable schools to electronically submit digital coursework that relates to general and vocational qualifications - easing coursework management, providing more transparency and accuracy in assessment and moderation, and saving teachers' time.
About iGINE - Incorporated in Singapore in Mar 2000, iGINE is an eBusiness and Managed Service provider. It specialized in B2B integration and business processes with customers’ external business partners. In 2008, it formed a subsidiary, PulseSecure Pte Ltd, focusing on Web Application Security. In 2010, iGINE partnered UK-based TAG Developments to provide customised educational software and tools to schools in Singapore and the region.
AQA wins a NAACE ICT Impact Award through a project utilising TAG's e-assessment technologies
The Assessment and Qualification Alliance (AQA) has just won a prestigious NAACE ICT Impact Award within the Post Compulsory Education Award for their developmental work on AQA Baccalaureate Enrichment Diary.
The award was presented to the AQA Baccalaureate Team by Lord Knight at a Gala Dinner at the end of the first day of the NAACE Annual Conference in Reading.
The AQA Baccalaureate Enrichment Diary was developed for AQA by TAG Developments and is based on TAG's multi-award winning MAPS e-Assessment platform. The Enrichment Diary is provided to all schools and colleges delivering the AQA Baccalaureate to provide students with a means to capture and reflect on their extra-curricular activities relating to this qualification. The Enrichment Diary has proved to be highly popular with students, providing them with familiar social media style tools that enable them to upload digital evidence of learning from a computer or directly from a mobile phone via SMS/MMS, to a blog where they can reflect on their progress and achievements. The diary has also proved very popular with teachers, enabling them to gain a far greater insight into the achievements of their students and also reducing the time and effort in maintaining paper-based portfolios.
To learn more about the AQA Baccalaureate and the Enrichment Diary please visit http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/bacc.php
To watch a video case study of one schools reaction to the Enrichment Diary visit: http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/bacc/bacc-enrichment-video.php
To see an examples of student enrichment diaries please visit: http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA_BACC_EXAMPLES_FROM_STUDENT_ENRICHME...
To find out more about TAG's multi-award winning assessment platform MAPS, on which the AQA Baccalaureate Enrichment Diary is based, please visit: http://maps-ict.com/ or watch the short product overview video at: http://www.maps-ict.com/maps3.mov
To find out more about the NAACE Impact Awards winners please visit: http://www.naace.co.uk/conference2011/Impactawardwinners
Notes to editors:
About TAG Developments – TAG Developments, the award-winning software development division of BLi Education, is a highly regarded value-added team of educational specialists, web developers and project managers who have specialised in creating market leading web-based e-learning, e-portfolio, e-assessment solutions and innovative educational community websites for the UK education market since 1997. TAG Developments solutions not only facilitate e-assessment within schools, but they also provide accreditation and awarding bodies with mechanisms that enable schools to electronically submit digital coursework that relates to general and vocational qualifications - easing coursework management, providing more transparency and accuracy in assessment and moderation, and saving teachers time.
TAG Developments shortlisted for an Education Resources Award within the Innovation Category
TAG Developments' highly acclaimed on-screen annotation and marking tool, Red Pen Tool, has successfully been short listed by the judges of the 2011 Education Resource Awards for an Innovation Award, which is managed by BESA in association with the Education Show.
TAG Developments' Managing Director, Matt Wingfield, said 'Marking and annotating student digital work has always been fraught with challenges for teachers, often resulting in the teacher simply printing out the work and marking the work with a pen, which is costly and time consuming. The Red Pen Tool changes this and provides a revolutionary and highly intutive mechanism for annotating and marking any digital file, including videos and audio files, through any standard web-browser and we are delighted that its contribution to the delivery and assessment has been recognised by the judges of the ERA Awards. We eagerly await the final decision of the judging panel on the 18th March!'
To learn more about the Red Pen Tool please visit http://www.tagdevelopments.com/projects/red-pen-tool or watch the short product overview video at http://www.maps-ict.com/redpentool.mov
To find out more about the e-learning awards please visit http://www.elearningage.co.uk/awards.aspx
Notes to editors:
About TAG Developments – TAG Developments, the award-winning software development division of BLi Education, is a highly regarded value-added team of educational specialists, web developers and project managers who have specialised in creating market leading web-based e-learning, e-portfolio, e-assessment solutions and innovative educational community websites for the UK education market since 1997. TAG Developments solutions not only facilitate e-assessment within schools, but they also provide accreditation and awarding bodies with mechanisms that enable schools to electronically submit digital coursework that relates to general and vocational qualifications - easing coursework management, providing more transparency and accuracy in assessment and moderation, and saving teachers time.
TAG Developments complete first phase of Planet Sherston and Schoolstube development for BETT 2011
TAG Developments have just completed the initial development for new Sherston products, Planet Sherston and Schoolstube.
Planet Sherston is a new VLE service that contains all of the popular Sherston titles as learning objects. Students can complete activities and have their performance recorded within the system, ready for review from their teachers.
Schoolstube is the new schools orientated online video service. This new web service provides a protected area for school to upload their video content, secure in the knowledge that the content is private to the school but also able to benefit from the comprehensive range of services offered by SchoolsTube which includes Red Pen Video annotation as well as mobile phone uploads.
TAG Developments are a leading educational developer with expertise in all web, multimedia and iOS development. For an informal discussion of your needs, contact Karim Derrick on 07765 252545.
TAG Developments launch new iPhone apps on iTunes store
TAG Developments have taken Sherston Publishing software titles Charlie Chimp and Percy Parker and launched them onto the iTunes store for the first time on the iPhone and iPad platforms. TAG's in house iphone development team have in recent months been developing a number of titles from the Sherston back catalogue for iOS with a number of new titles forthcoming.
To purchase and download the apps:
Percy Parker
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sing-your-times-tables-percy/id379040806?...
Charlie Chimp
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/charlie-chimp/id389537454?mt=8
For bespoke iPhone and iPad development please contact Karim Derrick on 07765 252545.
TAG Developments wins a prestigious e-Learning Award
TAG Developments' highly innovative on-screen annotation and marking tool, Red Pen Tool, has successfully won a prestigeous award within the category 'The most innovative new product or tool in e-learning’ from a total of over 200 submissions. The awards are organised by eLearning Age Magazine.
TAG Developments' Managing Director, Matt Wingfield, said 'The Red Pen Tool continues to revolutionise how digital files, such as text, illustrations, presentations, video and audio are annotated and marked by both students and educators and we are delighted that its contribution to the delivery and assessment of e-learning has been recognised by the judges of the e-Learning Awards.'
The judges described the Red Pen Tool as being 'the missing link in the e-portfolio/assessment space and revolutionise how teachers mark and assess work in an online world.'
To learn more about the Red Pen Tool please visit http://www.tagdevelopments.com/projects/red-pen-tool or watch the short product overview video at http://www.maps-ict.com/redpentool.mov
To find out more about the e-learning awards please visit http://www.elearningage.co.uk/awards.aspx
Notes to editors:
About TAG Developments – TAG Developments, the award-winning software development division of BLi Education, is a highly regarded value-added team of educational specialists, web developers and project managers who have specialised in creating market leading web-based e-learning, e-portfolio, e-assessment solutions and innovative educational community websites for the UK education market since 1997. TAG Developments solutions not only facilitate e-assessment within schools, but they also provide accreditation and awarding bodies with mechanisms that enable schools to electronically submit digital coursework that relates to general and vocational qualifications - easing coursework management, providing more transparency and accuracy in assessment and moderation, and saving teachers time.