Category: BTL News

Latest Features coming to Surpass – Winter 2019

24 January 2019

The next release of Surpass includes some fantastic new features to help your organisation with assessment design and delivery. Tim Burnett and Holly Nicol recently demonstrated some of the key enhancements in a Surpass Community webinar, which was broadcast live from the BTL offices on 22nd January. If you weren’t able to join, you can catch up on the full recording here. In this short article we summarise some of the key features going into the next release. As always, more comprehensive details can be found on the Surpass Knowledge Base when the release goes live. If you’re an existing…

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Filed under: BTL News, Feature Walkthrough, Other, Surpass Features, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

2018: A Year in Review

2 January 2019

It’s been another incredible year for the Surpass Community. We’ve celebrated our 20 millionth on-screen test, held the biggest Surpass Conference yet, and launched a new online invigilation service. As well as all this, we’ve welcomed new organisations to the Surpass Community, and invested over £7 million into Surpass feature development, plus much more. Watch our year in review video (below) to find out more. Thanks to all Surpass Community members for their collaboration and hard work that make achievements like this possible. We’re looking forward to what 2019 holds!

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Filed under: BTL News, Case Studies, Industry News, Other, Video, e-Assessment

Latest Features added to Surpass – Summer/Autumn 2018

7 November 2018

There have been a number of new and innovative features added to Surpass over the last few months. Release 12.15 back in August saw the introduction of a new caliper tool, a new survey section type, and further enhancements to ‘Tasks’. More recently, the Autumn update introduced a new Likert survey question type, enhancements to bulk scheduling, and a new ‘Advanced’ mode of the Short Answer question type, plus much more. In this article, we will introduce just some of the most recent additions that can help the Surpass Community with assessment design and delivery. If you would like a…

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Filed under: Accessibility, BTL News, Other, Surpass Platform, Video, Webinars, e-Assessment

20 Million Cakes!

31 October 2018

Last month marked a huge milestone for BTL and the Surpass Community – 20 million on-screen tests delivered through Surpass, and what better way to share the success with our Surpass Community members, than with cake! The arrival of any sweet treat in the office is always sure to put a smile on everyone’s face, but it’s even more special when it marks the achievement of such a significant landmark. We received lots of lovely messages via social media from Surpass Community members as they received (and enjoyed eating!) their celebratory cakes. No doubt they didn’t last long if it’s…

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Filed under: BTL News, International, Other

20 million tests delivered through Surpass!

27 September 2018

This year the Surpass Community has achieved a significant milestone: together we have delivered our 20 millionth on-screen test! We’d like to thank all of the Surpass Community members who have contributed to us reaching this major landmark. Almost 3 million of those tests have been delivered just in the last year! So how did we get there? 20 million tests alone is impressive, but did you know that Surpass assessments are delivered in 125 countries? We’re proud to be trusted by some of the world’s leading awarding and professional bodies, to develop and deliver tests around the world. Surpass…

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Filed under: A Day in the life, BTL News, Industry News, Other, Press Release, e-Assessment

Accessibility in Assessment

18 July 2018

Inclusivity is a fundamental right for everyone. Together, as a community, we need to ensure that we are heading in the right direction in order to make inclusivity a reality and not just a dream. Assessment is something that we all face at some point in our educational journey, so everyone needs to have the same opportunity to express themselves and to be rewarded for their efforts. We tackled this complex and often controversial topic in a recent webinar for the Surpass Community. Joining the discussion were members of BTL’s Accessibility Team, Leon Hampson and Isabel Holdsworth, along with content…

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Filed under: Accessibility, BTL News, Case Studies, Industry News, International, Opinions, Other, Services, Surpass Platform, Video, Webinars, e-Assessment

Latest Features Added to Surpass – June 2018

10 July 2018

The latest release of Surpass has seen a number of new innovative features introduced to the assessment platform. In this article, we will introduce some of the additions that are hotly anticipated by the Surpass Community. However, if you would like a more comprehensive overview of all updates, these are available, as always, from the Knowledge Base. If you’re an existing Surpass Community member you can contact your Account Manager for details of how to access this information. If you are not currently a Surpass user, and you are interested in finding out more about these, or any other features,…

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Filed under: BTL News, Case Studies, Feature Walkthrough, Industry News, Services, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

GDPR and beyond with BTL and the Surpass Community

26 May 2018

GDPR and beyond with BTL and the Surpass Community Like most, I’m sure you are now pleased that the GDPR 25th May deadline has passed. GDPR has been one of the biggest topics of the assessment community in recent months and perhaps it has only been the tip of the iceberg of a data cleaning revolution. Regardless of whether you are outside or inside of the EU, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will have had an impact on how you view, handle, store, and share personal data. BTL, like many of its partners, have worked hard to ensure that we…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, Press Release, Webinars

Latest features added to Surpass – Winter 2017 / 2018

2 March 2018

We’re often told by Surpass users that one major benefit of being part of the community is the regular feature updates to the product as a result of collaboration between the BTL innovation team and client requests, based on changes taking place within the industry. Since our last update article, in addition to the regular mail-outs by the documentation and account management teams, Surpass pre-release webinars have been used to introduce key upcoming features and give the Surpass community an opportunity to ask questions before the update is deployed. An archive of recordings is available at btl.com/surpass/pastwebinars. If you’re interested…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, Surpass Features, Surpass Platform, Video, Webinars, e-Assessment

Surpass Conference 2017 – Delegate Views

12 October 2017

Once again, Surpass Conference was a huge success thanks to a wealth of input from the Surpass Community. Presentation videos, photos, and other materials from the conference will be available soon at conference.surpass.com. In the meantime, please enjoy these highlights and let us know what you enjoyed most about this year’s event.

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Filed under: BTL News, Case Studies, Industry News, Opinions, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

Should your poor internet connection prevent you moving to e-assessment?

11 July 2017

Although more locations have access to stable internet and confidence in internet stability is increasing, it still doesn’t take much for the internet connection to fail or stall. It might surprise you to learn that many areas still don’t have fibre broadband connections, and bandwidth contention can be an issue. It only has to happen for a few minutes, but the impact can be significant if your exam software is data intensive or relies on a constant and stable connection. Surpass: The Assessment Platform includes an auto-updating secure delivery client, which can be easily installed on test centre computers. This…

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Filed under: A Day in the life, BTL News, Case Studies, International, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) in the U.S.A. chooses Surpass for high-quality assessment production for healthcare professionals

14 June 2017

Through a unique development relationship, NBME will realise its vision for a more efficient and innovative examination content creation and management tool using BTL’s Surpass: The Assessment Platform. BTL are delighted to announce that, following a successful Proof of Concept (POC) project, Surpass: The Assessment Platform has been selected to be NBME’s single platform for the creation and management of exam items. BTL’s Surpass platform will enable NBME to realise its objective to streamline and improve the efficiency of assessment operations, while continuing to maintain NBME’s reputation for high standards in medical examination authoring. NBME, which has headquarters in Pennsylvania,…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, International, Press Release, e-Assessment

With the latest features added to Surpass, your tests can be even more dynamic, collaborative and vocal than ever before.

7 June 2017

The most recent update of Surpass: The Assessment Platform brings with it a number of new features sure to benefit your organisation’s question authors, test creators and candidates alike. These features provide Surpass Community members with even more opportunities to deliver dynamic assessments, including tools for interacting with complex source material. Also included is extended media support for audio playback and candidate speaking assessments. In addition, new collaboration tools let you work more effectively as an authoring team. As always, existing Surpass Users can find a comprehensive, detailed list of updates on the Surpass Learning Portal. For more details on…

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Filed under: BTL News, Services, Surpass Features, Surpass Platform, e-Assessment

The Surpass Community unlocks the potential of End-Point Assessments – Discover more in the EPA Webinar Series.

31 May 2017

In May, BTL hosted the first of 2 webinars designed to provide Surpass Community members an insight into how Surpass can be used to enhance the delivery of End-Point Assessments (EPA) for the UK Apprenticeship reforms. The BTL team demonstrated key features within Surpass that not only improved the breadth of the question types available within the EPAs, but also how Surpass can be used to share and collaborate, potentially reducing setup investment and unlocking ROI from the 20% capped delivery charge. In addition to the webinar, Tim Burnett from BTL explained to delegates attending the recent e-Vocational Leeds conference,…

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Filed under: BTL News, End Point Assessment, Industry News, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

Surpass Spring Update: Diagram Creator, High Fidelity Image Viewer, Item Relationships and more.

30 March 2017

The latest updates to Surpass: The Assessment Platform has seen some exciting new functionality added for both test creators and candidates, including the addition of our award winning High Fidelity Image Viewer* and the new Diagram Creator for Essay and Spreadsheet question types. In addition to these new features, Surpass also continues to re-enforce its accessibility support. Question authors can now easily include assistive audio files for a variety of question types, and test delivery is now supported in an additional 30 languages; including Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Russian and Portuguese. More information on the Diagram Creator and the…

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Filed under: BTL News, Surpass Platform, e-Assessment

Breaking News: Surpass wins top prize for assessment innovation

High Fidelity Image Viewer in action

8 March 2017

The new Surpass High Fidelity Image Viewer collected a top prize at the Association of Test Publishers Innovations in Testing Conference today (Tuesday 7th March) in Scottsdale, AZ. Andy McAnulla, CTO at BTL, was successful in being awarded the Judges’ Award for Innovation having faced tough competition during the first Innovations Lab. Andy delivered a fantastic and inspirational presentation, and provided some excellent answers to searching questions by the veteran judging panel. The Surpass High Fidelity Image Viewer has been designed to deliver super high resolution image sets during medical examinations. The viewer is easy to use by both candidates…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, International, Press Release, Surpass Platform, e-Assessment

SurpassPaper+ Product Update

6 January 2017

SurpassPaper+ has been hailed as the evolution of assessment, a bridge between paper-based testing and computer-based testing (CBT). 2016 saw candidates taking the first live tests in participating pilot schools across the UK. Sometimes the app was being used by the whole class, other times as a blended approach with candidates either writing or typing responses to the same exams. Feedback has been positive with a number of different organisation types seeing a large range of benefits. Within the schools’ community, particularly SEN classes, exam officers see SurpassPaper+ as a great time saver for both the setup and invigilation of…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, Services, Video, e-Assessment

This Year in Assessment: 2016

13 December 2016

As the year draws to a close, we round up some of the fantastic achievements and developments that have happened in the Surpass community over the past 12 months.

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, International, Opinions, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment

10 Benefits of On-screen Question Authoring

27 September 2016

Creating engaging questions in Surpass can be as painless as writing an email. Using a sophisticated assessment authoring solution to create a central repository of question content is considered to be best practice when it comes to the creation of on-screen and paper-based examination content. Question authors often come from a variety of professional backgrounds with different experiences in item authoring. Although they are subject matter experts, the whole process would undoubtedly benefit from a degree of structure and consistency, particularly when working with distributed teams with mixed levels of experience. By using on-screen authoring tools, the quality and creativity…

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Filed under: BTL News, Opinions, Services, e-Assessment

How do we realistically support the growing demand for using computers in final examinations?

29 July 2016

Teacher feedback demonstrates that there is a growing problem. As technology uptake grows in the classroom and the workplace, approaches to learning and employment become separated from the world of final examinations. As a result, schools will be reluctant to invest time and money in technology-enhanced learning unless realistic solutions that work with the national examination structure are produced. In July, BTL ran a teacher workshop in Leeds and it revealed some interesting problems for the future of examinations. To date, using paper and pen within an exam has been part of a learning cycle, but that learning cycle is…

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Filed under: BTL News, Case Studies, Opinions

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