The new technologies emerging in today’s education landscape undoubtedly offer immense learning benefits and opportunities for advancing global education. However, as these solutions are introduced, it’s inevitable that questions arise. As the assessment industry in particular continues to undergo a rapid digitization, leaders from educational institutions and bodies across the world are connecting with their peers online and sharing resources and best practices for implementing and optimizing their programs.
With this digital acceleration, institutions across the world are facing the same challenges surrounding the implementation of computer-based testing tools. In recognizing this, education leaders have formed a number of assessment communities for embarking on a shared journey to digitalization. These communities are open for organizations and individuals involved in the advancement of eAssessment. They offer members a unique way to connect directly with other digital assessment leaders and become involved in the sharing of knowledge, standards, best-practices and more.
Below, we highlight three popular communities that you can tap into for resources and expertise surrounding digital assessment tools.
Flip+
The Flip+ eAssessment community was founded in 2019 by industry colleagues in France, Luxembourg, Italy and Portugal based on a philosophy of sharing as a driver for digital transformation in assessment.
“[Flip+] recognizes that education systems are moving at different paces and have diverse national contexts, strengths, needs and experiences, and hence offers a space to share the opportunities, challenges and solutions inherent to this change.” – Flip+
The eAssessment community promotes a philanthropic culture of sharing across three main areas of focus:
- Knowledge: Members of the Flip+ community can share their experience in transitioning to digital assessment tools, use cases, and research into innovative topics.
- Technology development: Flip+ offers resources for technology development, including access to a niche community of IT professionals addressing a range of topics in assessment, from the use of open source and open standards, to accessibility, to scoring, reporting and more.
- Content: To make assessment content more widely accessible, the Flip+ item library allows countries across the world to share assessment items. Adhering to the rules established by the community, members can add, consult, borrow or even use these items.
Flip+ is open to all non-profit organizations with the mission of advancing assessment to promote better teaching and learning outcomes. You can learn more about joining the Flip+ community here.
IMS
IMS Global is a worldwide collaborative empowering technology leaders in the education sector to work together to advance the use of EdTech for the betterment of learning. The organization develops and maintains certifications for open interoperability standards, which enable a “plug-and play-architecture and ecosystem that provides a foundation on which innovative products can be rapidly deployed and work together seamlessly.”
IMS members play an active role in driving the development of open assessment standards, like QTI and LTI. Currently, there are over 670 IMS members across 25 countries and the community continues to experience growth. Members reap benefits like access to technical resources, and tool certifications, as well as the IMS network of organizations, which can frequently provide partnership opportunities.
ISTE
ISTE is a non-profit organization providing tools and resources that help institutions lay the groundwork for their digital assessment initiatives. ISTE members have access to an exclusive professional learning network of leaders and educators from around the world where they can discuss EdTech topics and participate in peer to peer sharing.
In addition to their network, the organization also provides standards for education leaders and resources on how to get started adopting them.
“The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide.” – ISTE
The ISTE Standards for Education Leaders help guide administrators in supporting learning, and creating technology-rich learning environments. They include targeted information and practices, providing a step-by-step framework for making digital learning effective, accessible and equitable.
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BONUS: TAO’s eAssessment Community
Designed for open source, TAO Core provides institutions in developing countries around the world with equitable access to creative online assessment. The TAO community offers resources for hundreds of thousands of global TAO Core users. TAO Core users can connect via the user forum, and download and make code updates via github. Want to learn more about TAO Core? Try it now for free!
By accessing our paid services, you can further benefit from our expertise and community of sharing. Find out how.
