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How did the project start?
Granada Learning is a key player in the UK education market and its assessment division, GL Assessment, has been providing schools with tests and assessment services for twenty-five years.
In response to the Government’s demand for online testing in schools, Granada Learning’s Newcastle software studio began developing a state-of-the-art online testing platform (Testwise) for GL Assessment in 2000. This online testing platform offers schools the same rigour and quality as paper tests, with the added benefits of instant results, immediate analysis, greater motivation for test-takers, and no marking for teachers.
Testwise was initially hosted on a local server at each participating school before moving online. However, in 2008, the Newcastle studio rewrote and redesigned the platform – known as Testwise 3 – as a Web 2.0 application, making it a fully hosted, scalable, online assessment service.
By the end of 2008, over 1.3 million tests were taken online and the new Testwise 3 platform is now used in over 70 countries worldwide – all developed, tested and supported by Granada Learning’s Newcastle studio.
What options did you consider?
We had to ensure that the system worked efficiently on a number of levels. For instance, pupils have to be able to view and answer questions in an appropriate way for their age and grasp of IT. We therefore built the questions using multiple-choice options, dragging and dropping items and easy manipulation of on-screen graphics.
Teachers have to receive the test results quickly and in a format that is appropriate for their needs. As such, we enabled test scores and diagnostic pupil reports to be delivered to the teachers within minutes of pupils finishing the test. Reports include raw/standardised age score, a current National Curriculum level and indicative National Test levels for each pupil.
Automatic marking eliminates hours of time-consuming work for teachers and immediate reports allow teachers to evaluate pupils’ needs immediately. Results can then be exported for record keeping or further analysis as Testwise is fully compatible with a school’s Management Information System.
What help and expertise did you receive?
Prior to going live, an independent software testing company was consulted to carry out load-testing to ensure Testwise was capable of handling the number of pupils we expected to use the system.
Sun Microsystems assisted us with hardware and architecture, and Oracle Database Administrators were consulted to improve the performance of the database.
Local companies Nigel Wright, STCS and Onyx have assisted with specialist services.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
We learned that teachers often do not have time to read manuals and ease-of-use is key. This led to removing unused functionality from the previous version, giving users a much more intuitive experience.
Testwise 3 has been designed from the ground-up to be modular and scalable. As the numbers of users and testing activity grow, we can easily introduce additional hardware capacity with minimal complication.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Testwise 3 is a very quick and robust testing platform, with the capacity to handle thousands of users simultaneously. It is much more intuitive than previously and no longer requires lengthy training sessions for teachers.
All Testwise 3 servers are now located in a dedicated, high availability 24/7 hosting facility in Newcastle, using mainframe class computers. This means simplicity in management from the schools point of view. This dedicated data centre hosting means the need for on-site customer support has been virtually eliminated.
There are currently 60 schools in the North East using Testwise and between them, they have taken 20,000 tests in the last two years.
Ernie Milne, the Deputy Head at St Mary’s School in Newcastle, explains: “For staff, the ease of administration and the engagement of pupils in the process plus the speedy return of reports are all very important. For pupils, it’s less stressful and they engage more willingly than they would with paper tests.”
Nicola Brown, the Exams Officer at All Saints College, Newcastle, adds: “The digital version is better than the paper version of the test and motivates the pupils more. The reporting is very straightforward.”
What are your plans for the future?
We are keen to expand the use of our online digital testing into markets other than education and to continue to expand in the North East through partnerships with business support agencies, such as Business Link, Codeworks and Sunderland Software City. We are also keen to forge partnerships with other local suppliers and educational institutions.
Testwise is already in use in over 70 countries around the world and we are also looking to expand its use further on the international market. We are also in the process of creating different types of digital tests.
