E-assessment; a work in progress?

Just been again to the Learning Technologies conference at Olympia. I wrote a blog about the event last year. This year’s reflection on the event is different from last year’s, where the overarching impression was of every supplier offering everything and as a result it was really hard to distinguish, what were the particularly special offers being made by each provider.

At this year’s conference there was certainly more activity both in terms of participants and exhibitors, however it would again be hard to identify any supplier who was offering anything that was outstanding.

Indeed in terms of two of the presentations I attended by suppliers we know well, namely City & Guilds/Kineo and Atticmedia they both promised something radical, but with respect to both organisations they were launching products that were to come.

City & Guilds/Kineo new product was interesting in that it combines e-learning materials alongside an e-portfolio with a comprehensive reporting tool. A concept we have consistently argued has the potential to transform the market. Indeed it was a point I personally made to the executive team at City & Guilds about five years ago.

We were informed that this new product was being used from this Monday, in which case it was regrettable that the only screen shot provided was of the opening page. It was perhaps because they have not yet quite finished the e-portfolio element, which we know from experience is often far more difficult to develop than any e-learning materials.

It was clearly also strange that City & Guilds/Kineo had opted not to use their own e-portfolio company, Learning Assistant to deliver this solution but rather relied on the Totara LMS system to provide this functionality. To my knowledge the Totara e-portfolio is still a ‘work in progress’ and it is not something that can be created in months!

Atticmedia another company we have also worked with, were announcing a new project called ‘Mojo Central’. It is a new mobile and social learning platform. Again it was not really a launch not least because this development was announced back on October 31st. What they were actually appealing was for volunteers to try out their Beta version in the summer. Um? I really like Attic but they have a bit of a track record of talking about systems that never quite get finished.

Maybe this is a trick I have missed, which is that you no longer have to wait until you have a real site but rather it is sufficient to tell people about some great ideas you have….so here goes. We are working on a tool that enables staff development to be planned and its impact tracked and one that will enable work experience placements to be created and closely matched against the needs of individual students. We are also continuing to work on our upgraded e-portfolio for vocational qualifications and exploring whether we can generate the reports necessary to claim funding.

All due to be delivered in the Spring. The difference from some of the launches above is that we will deliver.