Category: e-Assessment

Accessibility in Surpass – June 2019 Update

14 June 2019

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019, the team at BTL took an opportunity to demonstrate their work over the past year and show colleagues exactly how a person with additional requirements might use a screen reader (e.g. JAWs), or voice recognition software (e.g. Dragon), to assist them during the exam process. We receive a lot of interest from within the Surpass Community about how they can make the exam experience more accessible for their candidates, so Isabel and Ben filmed a short discussion and demonstration of some of those features, to give the audience outside of BTL an idea of…

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Filed under: Accessibility, Case Studies, Opinions, e-Assessment

Collaboration: Why working together achieves better results

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11 June 2019

The Surpass Community are no strangers to collaboration. Every year over a hundred representatives from the assessment sector gather for the Surpass Conference, eager to overcome shared challenges and present new ideas in assessment. In this article discover how you can benefit from being part of this collaborative community when it comes to Surpass feature development. Collaboration is one of BTL’s core values, and one we actively promote both internally with teams and colleagues, and externally with our ever-growing international customer base, which has now reached 180 organisations using Surpass. Approximately £7 million is invested into Surpass every year, with…

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

Assessment Technology Company BTL Group recognised for International Growth in The Sunday Times WorldFirst SME Export Track 100

31 May 2019

BTL Group have been recognised as one of Britain’s fastest growing small to medium-sized companies for international sales over the last two years, coming in at number 47 on the list. During this period, exported software and services accounted for 42.7% of BTL Group’s total sales revenue, with a two-year average international sales growth of 73.58% per annum. BTL Group was established in 1985 and is headquartered in North of England. Shifting their focus to assessment software in 2007 they have grown a strong community of customers both in the UK and around the world, with over 180 organisations currently…

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

Latest features in Surpass – April 2019 release

2 May 2019

The latest release of Surpass includes some fantastic new features to help your organisation with assessment design and delivery. Georgie and Ashleigh from the Surpass Training team recently demonstrated some of the key enhancements in a Surpass Community webinar, which was broadcast live from the BTL offices on 16th April. 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 in the latest release. As always, more comprehensive details can be found on the Surpass Knowledge Base. If you’re an existing Surpass Community member…

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Filed under: Case Studies, Creative Item Authoring, Industry News, Pre-Release, Services, Surpass Platform, Video, Webinars, e-Assessment

Online Invigilation with The Association of Corporate Treasurers

27 March 2019

Over the last few months, The Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) has been spearheading use of BTL’s newly launched Online Invigilation Service, an innovative approach to remotely-based candidates, using dual camera monitoring technology. The introduction of Online Invigilation expands BTL’s existing Test Delivery Services, which already includes the largest computer-based test centre network in the UK for session-based testing. The ACT has already delivered several successful exam series to candidates in convenient locations around the world using Surpass with Online Invigilation. The ACT has used a combination of live invigilation and the record and review method as part of the…

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Filed under: A Day in the life, BTL News, Case Studies, Industry News, International, Services, Surpass Platform, Video, e-Assessment, online invigilation, remote proctoring

SQA confirms its investment in cutting-edge technology for high-stakes e-assessment

20 February 2019

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), are a founder member of the Surpass Community and innovators in e-Assessment. They have recently confirmed their commitment to using the latest technologies for the development and delivery of assessments, by renewing their contract with the award-winning Surpass: The Assessment Platform. A detailed press release is available to download in PDF format here: Read the full press release: SQA BTL Contract Signing 2019 SQA Chief Executive, Dr Janet Brown, said: “Today’s contract signing reaffirms the strength of SQA’s 10 year partnership with BTL Group, and our commitment to using technology to deliver the best possible…

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

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

Developing Digital Assessments with telc Language Tests

23 January 2019

We were delighted to be invited to telc’s offices in Frankfurt, Germany, to speak to Sean McDonald and Rebecca Rosenlund about their journey into on-screen testing, and the success of their recent pilot project. By re-thinking their existing content as opposed to simply transferring paper content to on-screen, telc have utilised the functionality in Surpass to create questions that test multiple skills at once, in a context relevant to how students learn and apply their skills today. Stakeholder research informed the development of new content, and just some of the examples telc demonstrate include questions which ask candidates to listen…

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Filed under: A Day in the life, Case Studies, Creative Item Authoring, International, Video, Webinars, 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 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

Latest Features Added to Surpass – Spring 2018

25 April 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: Feature Walkthrough, Surpass Features, Surpass Platform, e-Assessment

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

How to balance multiple test forms with different marks and items.

20 July 2017

Dave Dixon, Senior Solutions Architect at BTL explains how you can manage multiple test forms with different total marks and item numbers. Balancing the grades of multiple test forms can be a difficult task for an awarding organisation. Multiple test forms can be created to reduce the chances of malpractice, which may occur in situations where candidates take tests on different days, for example in the case of on-demand testing. Typically, all test forms start off with the same number of questions and the same number of marks. Then later, despite rigorous workflow and quality checks, items can have their…

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Filed under: Case Studies, Industry News, 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

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