Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment Award

Graide has revolutionised the traditional assessment workflow with its innovative use of technology. It has been systematically shown to reduce workload and improve feedback for students. Our cloud-based platform provides a consistent digital workflow and can be accessed from any web-capable device, ensuring a seamless experience for students and educators alike. To ensure consistency amongst multiple staff members and allow students to switch devices, we have implemented a single source of truth system. The platform incorporates Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and handwriting recognition to make it easy for students to submit work and for educators to create assignments. Finally, Graide’s use of artificial intelligence allows educators to dynamically update the platform and deal with the nuances between student responses and educator feedback, making it a truly flexible and dynamic solution. Graide has overcome technological, psychological, and educational barriers to adoption, and our serverless architecture allows us to scale up and down to meet demand, making it suitable for a range of institutions. With 94% of users wanting to continue using Graide alongside its innovative use of technology, Graide has transformed the traditional assessment system and should be shortlisted for the award for "Most Innovative Use of Technology in Assessment."

In a world where technology is evolving at break-neck speed, two game-changing companies came together to push the boundaries even further. As soon as AKAD met Cirrus, they put their heads together and embarked on a journey to use Cirrus’ blueprint technology in an innovative way. Founded in 1959, AKAD has always found innovative ways to push the boundaries of how education works in Germany. In an increasingly hectic world where balancing work, family, and education is challenging, AKAD recognised the need to provide remote education and testing and is the first state-recognised private university for applied sciences designed for working people. In their quest to provide Germany’s most flexible education system, AKAD and Cirrus joined forces to offer randomised “Anytime Assessments” using the Blueprint function.

CENTURY’s approach to learning has had a positive impact for post-16 learners. There has been a clear sector-wide need for a rejuvenated initial assessment (IA) process for some time. The current process is time consuming for staff to conduct assessments and interpret results, and existing tests can be unreliable, leading to learners often being assigned to courses that are too hard or too easy. This can be especially damaging for learner confidence and motivation. We identified a clear gap in the market for a cutting edge smart adaptive initial assessment tool. Importantly, we also felt that improving the transition from assessment to learning by making it simpler and seamless would be a real game changer for students' motivation. Our Smart IA tool is designed to intelligently adjust to a learner’s ability in real time, both to ensure they do not become demotivated by a test that is too hard or lose impetus on a test that is too easy. The test automatically marks, reducing tutor workload. Upon completion, a learner is assigned their accurate level to begin the seamless transition to the course appropriate for their level on the CENTURY platform. Smart IA is supported by the Ufi VocTech Trust.