CEA Training and Assessment pilot - Warwick
The training and evaluation event for Chartered Educational Assessors took place at Warwick University on June 24th and 25th 2008. There were 26 participants from which a select number of individuals were chosen, 18 in total, to take part in the pilot scheme. Participants came mainly from the tertiary sector and included teachers, lecturers and self-employed consultants. The pilot scheme runs until spring 2009 and will measure the impact of a CEA on institutions in a variety of contexts.
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Application
Initial advertisements for the role were placed on the website on the 22nd February. Applicants were asked to highlight previous knowledge and experience they had in the five elements of the process of assessment:
Planning or preparing assessments
Conducting assessments
Feeding back after assessments and handling data
Managing others
Managing yourself
Warwick training event
At the event, a member of CIEA staff outlined the current progress made with the Chartered Educational Assessor school based pilot and explained the likely general role of the CEA. Participants were placed into random teams for the remainder of the two days.
As the event consisted of both training and assessment, participants were asked to complete various tasks throughout the two days. People said that they found this demanding and that they felt under constant pressure, since their performances were being assessed on a continuous basis. Team-building, communication and inter-personal skills were all analysed carefully.
Participants' abilities to turn specifications and learners' needs into assessments that were fit for purpose; to develop effective assessment criteria and to suggest realistic ways of standardising and monitoring were outlined in each portfolio that built over the course of the two days. These portfolios were then assessed according to the assessment criteria that had been made explicit to each participant.
The focus of this pilot is on the FE and HE sectors and prospective CEAs will be working in their own institutions. That said, the adage that the process never changes, no matter the assessment carried out, still applies. CEAs will be looking at, and may be advising on, matters such as the choice of assessment model for a particular group of learners and the quality assurance processes that ensure these assessments are robust and fit for purpose.
Evaluation
Finally, participants were asked to evaluate the course and the training materials in an anonymous evaluation form. Results of this can be found on the following pages.
Space was also made available to pass a general comment, some of which can be found below:
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree or Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree The materials were fit for purpose 57 39 0 4 0 The materials for preparing for assessment fulfilled their objectives 57 39 4 0 0 The methods for conducting assessment fulfilled their objectives 52 43 4 0 0 The materials for data handling fulfilled their objectives 39 57 4 0 0 The materials for feeding back fulfilled their objectives 52 48 0 0 0 The materials for personal/inter-personal skills fulfilled their objectives 52 43 4 0 0 The tasks that were set were purposeful 74 22 4 0 0 The information provided was useful 74 26 0 0 0 I am confident of helping others. 74 22 4 0 0 The training and assessment has been enjoyable 78 22 0 0 0 The training and assessment has been informative 74 26 0 0 0