Collaborating on digital assessment transformation

With a three-week window having taken place before the school holidays and a further two-week window scheduled for the beginning of term 4, NZQA’s Digital Trial examinations are just past the midpoint. A total of 112 schools have registered to participate in the Digital Trials, with more than 10,500 entries across 15 subjects.  

Andrea Gray, deputy chief executive, digital assessment transformation, says that working closely with teachers and schools is crucial if NZQA is to achieve its goal of having all examinations available online, where appropriate, by 2020.

“Our approach of staged and managed co-creation with schools is working well. The Trials and Pilots enable schools to participate at a pace they are comfortable with, and provide an opportunity for schools to assess their capacity for digital assessment and its relevance to delivering teaching and learning. They also provide students with an opportunity to experience examinations in a digital format.”

Feedback from teachers, students, supervisors, and exam centre managers involved in the Digital Trials and Pilots is crucial. Post-examination surveys help to further NZQA’s knowledge of where schools are at, along with what is working well and what can be improved.

NZQA is also working closely with 13 schools and kura on a series of Co-managed Trials. These are different from the other Digital Trials and Pilots in that NZQA is invigilating and marking these examinations on behalf of the schools to increase its understanding of how digital examinations are managed. This information, along with feedback from students and staff throughout the year, is helping to develop a bank of knowledge that can be shared with the sector. The first in a series of case studies will be made available on the NZQA website in November.

Almost 2,000 subject experts are contracted as markers for NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship examinations throughout the country. Markers are responsible for marking over 1.2 million candidate entries, of which up to 11,000 will be from candidates participating in the NCEA Digital Pilot examinations.

These digital examinations will be marked online. Feedback from the subject experts involved in marking will be particularly important as digital marking becomes part of business as usual.

Andrea says that NZQA must remain responsive and relevant to the demands of the future. “But we cannot do it alone – it will take all of us to make it happen. We greatly appreciate the role that teachers and schools play in the development of our services, so that we can ensure that all New Zealand learners ‘qualify for the future world: kia noho takatu ki tō āmua ao’.”

For more information on the 2017 Digital Trials and Pilots, please visit www.nzqa.govt.nz/trials-pilots(external link).