Remote Assessment During Covid & Beyond

Blog post by Stephen Hinde, Community Manager for Ufi VocTech Trust

Recent events have forced everyone to rethink how they operate and for one Ufi-supported organisation this has meant rethinking its approach to remote assessment and learning. 

Open Awards received funding from Ufi as part of VocTech Now, a direct-response funding call to address educational challenges being faced as a result of Covid-19, so that they could explore how remote assessments can be delivered in a learner’s home to increase accessibility. 

Open Awards’ aim with the grant was to ensure that as many learners as possible could complete their Open Awards Functional Skills qualifications as planned this summer. Open Awards vision is to change lives through learning by supporting educational achievement for all.

Ufi’s support enabled Open Awards to pilot increased remote assessments to support the delivery of vocational qualifications. A total of 263 assessments were carried out during the project. 

Initial findings include the identification and set up of secure one-to-one remote invigilation, understanding the individual technology capabilities and needs of learners, and further development of the underpinning procedures around remote delivery of training and assessment. 

One finding of interest is the need to ensure learning is delivered in a way that uses technology people are familiar with as people can become nervous if they are asked to used specialist software.