PARIS, Feb. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The architecture of assessment platforms in education are typically structured around global interoperable standards such as those of the IMS Global Learning Consortium. The choice to respect standards at the assessment item level could be quite interesting: the item level is rich with the work of subject-matter-experts and teachers, these item-authors can demonstrate invention and great creativity. But is it possible to keep this creativity and the capacity to create original items in the computer-based assessment domain that respects interoperable standards? This question is relevant because technically the temptation is to choose solutions and present them in the best possible way to assess 21st century knowledge and skills of students. It is true that a selected-response interaction will always be an efficient way to assess students, however, over the past few years many rich, interactive digital tools have become unavoidable for students. The IMS consortium anticipated this need and created the possibility to add any kind of interaction as a specific module through a Portable Custom Interaction format.
The Vretta-Wiquid partnership project on developing Portable Custom Interactions embraced the innovation of integrating highly interactive tools to support the e-assessment community. A few years ago, they explored a solution to integrate a blocks-based programming language application called Snap, created by Berkeley University, into assessment items. This was developed in collaboration with the assessment division (DEPP) of the Ministry of Education in France.
The integration project included a thorough understanding of the underlying architecture of Snap to enable the program to react to event triggers in the interaction property panel. Specific tools were developed for the item author to log test-taker actions, the UI was simplified to prevent errors and focus the test taker's attention, and limits were added to the try number. The development also provided the possibility to create specific projects in advance to proposing them to the test taker.
Today, with GeoGebra becoming a widely used tool for teaching mathematics, providing the tool for large-scale assessments has become a key requirement of the assessment experience for various ministries of education and examination bodies. The Vretta-Wiquid partnership project is happy to announce that they have successfully achieved a breakthrough in integrating GeoGebra into open-source assessment platforms. Click here to view a preview video of this integration. The evolution of the integration continues in collaboration with the team at GeoGebra.
To learn more about how you can integrate GeoGebra into your open-source assessment platform to provide your students with a rich assessment experience, feel free to email info@vretta.com. A learning and assessment specialist will provide you with a demo of the progress thus far!
Jacob Pucar, Marketing Manager, info@vretta.com
