As many of you will know, for the past few years AlphaPlus has been working with the Welsh Government to develop national personalised adaptive assessments for all schoolchildren aged 7 to 14 in Wales. These assessments are formative, and have been designed to identify areas where children and teachers need to focus their efforts in

Remote proctoring (or remote invigilation – the two terms can be and are used interchangeably) is becoming more commonly used in all areas of assessment, and allows candidates to take assessments away from a traditional assessment centre – typically at home, or at work. PeopleCert offer many of their professional qualifications, including PRINCE2, online with

The Covid-19 crisis has hit all of us hard in many aspects of life.  In the grand scheme of things, Covid’s disruption of summer 2020 school examinations series is probably one of the smaller worries that society faces.  Nonetheless, it is a substantial challenge for authorities who have educational responsibilities in many countries. At AlphaPlus,

Setting the pass mark is a key stage in the development of many assessments. For many high-stakes assessments, it is crucial that when a candidate passes an exam, the certification body can be confident that they have reached a defined level of minimum competence. It’s worth stating the obvious – a pass mark is an

We are delighted to have taken on a new client, Brunei Shell Petroleum, whom we started working with in February. Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) has for 90 years been the largest oil and gas producer in Brunei Darussalam, contributing around 90% to Brunei’s oil and gas revenues. It operates an extensive and complex infrastructure with

John Winkley, AlphaPlus’ Director of Sales, shares his thoughts on assessment validity. In this short blog, I want to talk about two aspects of assessment that have come up in discussions with clients at this most difficult of times, and have reminded me of my reasons for taking up assessment as a career, 15 years

Almost every project we do is undertaken with support of the AlphaPlus’ associates. We’re aware that the strength and depth of the company relies in no small part on their expertise, knowledge and understanding of the complex education world. We recently sent out an anonymous survey to ensure that we are offering effective support for

Andy Lewis, Field Research Manager at AlphaPlus, discusses the challenges of recruiting for and running large-scale trials. In recent years, AlphaPlus has developed a successful field research function, building the capacity to deliver large-scale trials across a wide range of educational contexts. Since 2017, we have produced and delivered assessments to over 100,000 learners, in

Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have closely monitored the situation and have taken action to safeguard the health of our employees and to preserve our ability to operate. Our employees have been working from home from 16 March and we are pleased to say that almost all our project work is continuing unaffected

One of the many potential benefits of e-assessment is improved accessibility for learners with disabilities: technology can help reduce or remove some of the barriers that learners can face. However, many e-assessments allow relatively limited adjustment for learners with access requirements, and often assessments are not optimised for easy use even for those without special