Category: Industry News

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

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

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

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

e-Assessment Question Conference and the International e-Assessment Awards 2017 – What did we all take away?

Dr. Bob Gomersall, BTL Chairman, accepting the Lifetime Contribution Award at the first e-Assessment Awards.

31 March 2017

The 15th annual e-Assessment Question Conference is celebrating its most successful year yet, with delegates from around the world coming together to hear about the latest innovations under the theme ‘e-Assessment: commissioning, implementing and delivering’. So what were some of the key take-aways from this year’s conference? 1: So much has changed, but there is still a way to go. The conference began with a Keynote from Dr. Bob Gomersall, chairman of BTL Group and Virtual College, reviewing the evolution of assessment. Using a wide range of BTL customer examples, Bob challenged the audience to find ways in which technology…

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Filed under: Ceremonies, Conferences, Industry News, International, 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, Group Chief Technology Officer at BTL and Chief Executive Officer of BTL Surpass Inc. 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…

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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

With tough questions and rich debate, e-Assessment Question 2016 looks set to take on the challenges facing the industry

15 March 2016

BTL are long-term gold sponsors of the e-Assessment Question conference, an important event in the diary of any future-thinking assessment provider. This year, BTL will be taking key parts of two high profile sessions during this intense two-day event. Working alongside customers, BTL will discuss: What’s the future for written exams? Tim Burnett will engage with delegates to discuss what the future holds for paper, a long standing method of delivery which still dominates the assessment process. Has it had its day? Is it time for revolution, or evolution? International Language Testing delivery with British Council. Jim Crawford from BTL…

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Filed under: BTL News, Conferences, Industry News, International, e-Assessment

Automate your assessment business

23 February 2016

Surpass, the assessment platform, now gives you more opportunities to automate your business critical systems with a range of new integration methods. With more options, you can become more efficient. Since the first version of Surpass, integration has been a key factor in its development. By working with early adopters of the system, it was clear that any successful assessment platform would have to work in harmony with other applications and services. With this in mind, we have created a series of data connections that allow Surpass to talk automatically with other key back office systems used by our customers….

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

New Year – New Opportunities for you with Surpass

21 January 2016

Stand out from the crowd with Surpass The latest feature-rich Surpass release helps you reach new continents, enhance the control of examinations and ensure candidates have every opportunity they deserve to succeed. Surpass customers already proudly stand out from the crowd, and with the new features introduced in the latest release, they have the chance to stand taller than they ever have before. New features like brand customisation, highlighting tools for candidates, timed sections and new delivery language support enable Surpass customers to have greater control over the assessment structure, enhance the candidate experience and take their brand to…

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

The 2015 Surpass Conference Summary

22 December 2015

As an organisation, one thing we value above all else is our founding principal of using technology to improve learning and assessment. We want our partners to share our passion, and we regularly come together with those partners to discuss the industry, share thoughts and opinions and, ultimately, work together to create a product that meets a unified goal – better assessments for candidates. We are thrilled whenever we get to talk to our partners because of the enthusiasm and insight they bring to the roadmap of Surpass, and in addition to regular face-to-face meetings, video calls and site visits….

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Filed under: BTL News, Case Studies, Conferences, Industry News, International, Services, Surpass Platform

BTL Announces Partnership with Prometric

23 September 2015

BTL Announces Partnership with Prometric. We are delighted to announce that Prometric has selected Surpass as its primary assessment platform to support the delivery of high-stakes assessments for Prometric’s 8,000 test centres in more than 160 countries. Following a worldwide review of the market and available technologies, Prometric chose Surpass due to its ability to support a robust and scalable multi-device delivery strategy with an easy to use and intuitive experience for candidates and learners. Prometric, based in Baltimore, MD, is a market leading provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment, with candidates taking more than 9 million tests each year….

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

AQA set out their vision for the future of assessment

8 August 2015

AQA logo AQA, a long-term customer of BTL Learning & Assessment, have recently published a collection of essays which summarises 2 years of research into the future of assessment. The future of assessment – 2025 and beyond – is positive step for the assessment debate. Rather than picking apart the past, it looks at the future vision of how assessment could be made better. It focuses on the needs of students and teachers, and opportunities which are available both through process change and through the appropriate application of technology. See the “AQA – THE FUTURE OF ASSESSMENT PDF” Reflecting on…

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Filed under: Industry News, Opinions, Video, White Papers, e-Assessment

Surpass summer release (version 12) goes live

3 August 2015

As part of our continuing enhancement of Surpass, we are proud to say that the summer 2015 release has gone live to customers. This release is full of features which will help our customers grow their assessment activity, become more efficient and widen their assessment scope. So, what has changed in Surpass this summer? Table Question Type Tabular presentation of data is an important part of assessment, either for candidates to use as an information source, or for authors to provide a partially completed data set for the candidate to complete. Reporting Shakeup Our approach to reporting is to provide…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, Press Release

BTL Learning & Assessment leads the debate on technology in assessment at the House of Commons

27 July 2015

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…

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

WJEC Renew Their Investment in e-Assessment With Surpass

19 June 2015

WJEC and BTL Learning & Assessment are pleased to announce the renewal of the contract for supplying the Surpass Assessment Platform for the creation, management and delivery of e-Assessments for use in GCSEs and Functional skills qualifications. WJEC were one of the first UK Awarding Organisations to invest in Surpass after it was launched in 2007. They have taken advantage of its advanced abilities to create and deliver engaging on-screen examination content to be used in summative high-stakes delivery. The content created by WJEC has provided a glimpse into the future of rich media and simulation-based assessments, and the platform…

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Filed under: BTL News, Industry News, Surpass Platform

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