TAG Developments (the e-Assessment division of Sherston Software) has successfully secured a further contract with Edith Cowan University to supply its multi-awarding winning MAPS e-assessment technologies to support a research project looking into the capture and assessment of student work in two secondary school subject areas - Visual Arts and Design. The project is also being supported by Western Australia's School Curriculum and Standards Authority.

Building on the success of earlier similar projects that have used TAG's innovative assessment technologies, this project will involve about 400 students from various secondary schools in Western Australia, and will run from July 2012 - May 2013. The project will see the students capturing their work via TAG's MAPS assessment platform, and then teachers will assess the work using two approaches:

- Traditional criterion based assessment
- Professional judgement via TAG's innovative Adaptive Comparative Judgement system.

The results from the two approaches will then be compared and analysed from the perspective of achieving the highest assessment reliability.

Under the Bonnet: The Technology Behind the Project
The MAPS assessment platform was originally developed in partnership with Worcestershire Local Authority in the UK to support summative assessment for students aged 11-14 years. It has subsequently developed into the leading evidence based assessment solution for schools, colleges and universities, supporting formative and summative curriculum and qualification assessment across a wide range of subjects and with students aged 11-18 years, as well as vocational adult learning. MAPS is also used extensively to support qualification assessment by both Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examinations board (OCR) and the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) the UK's largest unitary accreditation body. The tool allows teachers to create activities that provide students with a mechanism for capturing project based learning in the classroom and so is ideal for supporting coursework and other learning scenarios where capturing and reflecting on the process of learning, rather than just the final outcome is important.

The 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 and can be used to assess a wide range of student evidence from scanned written scripts, rich multi-multimedia portfolios, to spoken responses, enabling highly reliable results whilst maintaining the validity/authenticity of the assessment.

For further details please contact Karen Pernynes via karen.pernyes@sherston.com

Notes to the editor:
About TAG Developments http://www.tagdevelopments.com

TAG Developments is the e-assessment division of Sherston Software Ltd. Over the past decade, TAG has produced a number of innovative and highly exciting online community and e-portfolio solutions, including MAPS, the flagship, award winning online e-Portfolio based e-assessment and e-moderation system and Red Pen Tool, the revolutionary on-screen marking and annotation tool.

About MAPS http://www.maps-ict.com

For information on Adaptive Comparative Judgement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_comparative_judgement

About Sherston www.sherston.com
Sherston is a leading publisher of educational software both in the UK and internationally, with engaging and award-winning e-learning resources covering every part of the curriculum. Its outstanding reputation is built upon over 25 years of providing schools and nurseries with innovative educational technology products, designed to motivate children and boost their performance.

Sherston’s broad portfolio includes its flagship online products, www.planetsherston.com and www.earlyyearsworld.com, plus an extensive range of products that are Learning Platform/LMS ready, optimised for Android and iPad tablets and are CD-ROM/USB flash drive deliverable.