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 The process of any kind of strategic planning will involve defining a vision for the future, as well as the mission and values that will shape your actions. You then set goals and action plans that will guide your daily, weekly and monthly activity to implement the strategy.
In developing an e-assessment strategy it will be necessary to include an examination of your current processes and policies for assessment. These will need to be adapted to harness the benefits of e-assessment. Some of the key process and policy issues to cover include:
 | The scope of e-assessment | | Awarding body involvement and guidance | | Identifying qualifications for pilot | | Policies and procedures | | Learners' understanding | | Managing geographic flexibility | | Changes to the assessment and verification processes |
The scope of e-assessment
Introducing e-assessment will bring about important changes to the design and traditional methods of assessment. Some qualifications will produce more challenges than others in getting ready for e-assessment. There may be substantial variation across qualifications and awarding bodies and you will probably have to scope out their breadth and plan appropriate priorities for introducing e-assessment.
Awarding body involvement and guidance
In order to prioritise the introduction of e-assessment, it will be important to consult with your awarding body. Some qualifications may be at a more advanced stage than others, with awarding body processes for e-assessment perhaps already in place. Some awarding bodies provide guidance on their e-assessment and qualifications. Centres that have multi awarding body approval should bear in mind that systems and processes might vary across awarding bodies. Centres wishing to offer e-assessment should ensure that their technical capacity meets with the approval of the awarding body.
Identifying qualifications for pilot
Based on the information gathered from a scoping exercise within your organisation and your dealings with the awarding body, you may wish to identify a project or pilot within a department or across certain qualifications to take forward your e-assessment strategy.
Policies and procedures
It is important that policies and procedures provide a structured framework for monitoring e-assessment. Quality assurance is key to the overall process. What may have been adequate in a previous paper-based approach may not automatically transfer into an e-approach. A risk assessment may be necessary to consider areas such as authenticity, security of assessment, how to track learner progress through e-assessment, matching styles of assessment to styles of learning. This list is not definitive and each centre may identify other risks not mentioned here.
Learners' understanding
Whilst e-assessment may present changes to teaching styles it will also impact on learning styles. To a certain extent learners will drive forward the demand for e-assessment as technology in everyday life becomes second nature. However, it remains important to consider the learner in developing your strategy. Are they ready for e-assessment? Do they have the ICT skills to take on board e-assessment?
Managing geographic flexibility
As a centre you may already manage multi-site locations. E-assessment will present different logistics, as you will be managing remote learners, tutors and assessors. You will need to ensure that your technical infrastructure supports this. Risk assessments should be taken to cover the secure transfer of data. It will also be important to review this infrastructure on an ongoing basis to maintain pace with developing technologies
Changes to the assessment and verification processes
Whilst the stages of the assessment and verification process will remain essentially the same, it may be that staff skills need to be updated to help the move from paper-based to online assessment. Assessment and verification will be managed using e-portfolios, which though primarily internet based, may also be intranet based, depending on the preference of your centre. Candidates will present their evidence for assessment within the e-portfolio. The system can be used to track candidate progress and record the assessment. Assessors and verifiers will be able to access the candidate portfolio to carry out assessment and verification, and record these against the qualification criteria. External verification will take place and the results submitted to the awarding body electronically.
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