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Crowd at BTL 30th anniversary forum

Attendees listen to talks given at the House of Commons Churchill Room for BTL’s 30th anniversary forum.

In June, as part of its 30th Anniversary, BTL Learning & Assessment hosted a forum at the House of Commons with contributions from guest speakers Nicky Morgan MP (Secretary of State for Education for the UK Government), Chris Jones (CEO and Director General of City & Guilds) and Prof. Peter Twining (Education Technology Action Group (ETAG)).

Despite the speakers each approaching the subject from their own unique viewpoints and experiences of technology in learning and assessment, the message was consistent. In a world where learning and business has embraced technology, traditional pen and paper approaches to assessment are not allowing learners to show their full potential.

There was also a common theme that technology could be used to alleviate workloads and improve logistics of the current assessment system, and that in order to compete on the world stage for both education and employment, we needed to embrace this evolution.

A full transcript from the event can be downloaded here

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A summary of key points made during the session have been brought together in this short video including:

  • How e-Assessment can make a positive difference to education, its delivery, and how it is measured.
  • Candidates should have the choice to use technology; the policy and processes should support this.
  • Traditional assessment delivery is not natural to the modern learner and doesn’t ease the burden for the teacher.
  • Paper testing cannot measure learning as well as e-assessment.
  • We all need to take our place in the evolution of assessment and technology and embrace change.

The difference that e-assessment in particular can make is underlined by Chris Jones from City & Guilds, who shared his vision for technology and how BTL has partnered with them to deliver this vision to date. We would like to thank all of the speakers and attendees for their contribution to the forum event and Philip Davies MP for sponsoring it.

The speeches can be heard in full, further down the page.

We also want to hear you opinions and keep the discussion moving. Do you agree with our key speakers? Do you have your own vision for the future of Assessment Technology? How do you see the Assessment landscape changing in the future?

Please send us your your comments using your favourite network:

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/btlgroupltd
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/btl
Twitter – https://twitter.com/btlgroup (@btlgroup)

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Chairman Bob Gomersall on how BTL has lead the way in providing quality technology for assessment.

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Nicky Morgan MP, Secretary of State for Education, on how learners need technology to show their true potential and how UK companies like BTL are enabling this.

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Chris Jones, CEO & Director-General, City & Guilds on how e-assessment which has been core to City & Guilds has made a difference and how it may continue to do so.

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Professor Peter Twining of the Open University on how the current system of teach for test and paper exams is failing the student and how ETAG recommendations need to be implemented.