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Speakers include:
Professor Cliff Beevers, Chair
Dr Gill Stewart, Director of Qualifications Development, SQA - Keynote opening address
Dr Helen Ashton, Heriot Watt
Gavin Cooney, MD, Learnosity
Norman Emerson, Assessment Programme Director, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Maxine Garson, Highlands Council
Bob Gomersall, BTL
Prof. Phillip John, SCHOLAR Programme, Heriot-Watt University
Christine Merrell, CEM, Durham University
Denis Saunders, Calibrand
Linda Steedman, e-com Scotland
Martyn Ware, e-Assessment Manager, SQA
Matt Wingfield, TAG Learning
Professor Cliff Beevers OBE taught Mathematics for over thirty years at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and was granted the title Professor Emeritus in 2005. Cliff worked for over two decades in the area of Computer Aided Assessment mainly in the field of Mathematics. Through projects like CALM, MathWise, Interactive PastPapers, SCHOLAR and PASS-IT he sought to enhance the student experience in both secondary and tertiary education. Cliff is currently the Chairman of the burgeoning e-Assessment Association.
www.e-assessment.com
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Dr Gill Stewart, Keynote opening address. Gill Stewart is the Director of Qualifications Development within SQA, with responsibility for the development of qualification assessments and services to meet the needs of schools, colleges, training providers and employers within Scotland. She has led a number of successful large scale development programmes in education and training, including the review of National Qualifications, the development of Skills for Work Courses, other vocational reforms and international projects. Current development programmes include the development of National Qualification Group Awards and the new National Courses being developed as part of the Curriculum for Excellence Programme. She is passionate about the impact that education can have in transforming lives and helping to transform Scotland. Previously she worked in the University sector. Gill holds a BSc (First Class) from Edinburgh University and a PhD from the University of Glasgow. She is married with a twelve year old son, Callum.
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Dr Helen Ashton is Head of e-Assessment for the SCHOLAR programme where she is involved in the development of e-assessment technologies and supporting those writing assessments. Prior to this Helen was a Lecturer in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. Helen has a strong interest in supporting feedback and reflection in learning (both online and otherwise), and in the use of technology in education. She has worked on a number of projects in this area including PASS-IT (http://www.pass-it.org.uk) and to deliver e-NABs in Mathematics and Computing in conjunction with SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority, http://www.sqa.org.uk). Current work in the area of online assessment includes research into the usage of such systems, the development of questions and specifications, and the development of delivery and reporting systems
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Gavin Cooney is co-founder and CEO of Learnosity. Gavin has worked with the NSW Board of Studies for the past 8 years primarily delivering online examinations. He is well known in Learning and Assessment circles and has spoken widely on the subject. Gavin works closely with leading companies and institutions around the world such as City & Guilds, ETS, The Open University as well as the Irish and Australian governments. Gavin has a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Dublin (UCD) and a Masters of Business Studies from the Smurfit School of Business, Ireland. Prior to founding Gavin was a University lecturer. Gavin was awarded the Young IT Professional of the year 2009 in Ireland. Email: gavin.cooney@learnosity.com, Twitter: @learnosity.com, www.learnosity.com
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Norman Emerson, Norman Emerson, Assessment Programme Director, Learning and Teaching Scotland. Norman has over 26 years’ experience in primary and secondary schools in Cumbernauld, Dundee and Glasgow. Norman has worked as a class and subject teacher and was a Principal Teacher before being appointed to the post of Deputy Head in a large Glasgow secondary school. In 2002, Norman was appointed to the post of Principal Education Officer within Learning and Teaching Scotland to take forward the Assessment is for Learning programme. Subsequently, he led a team of Area Advisers working in partnership with all 32 local authorities until he took on the role of Acting Programme Director - (Assessment) supporting work related to Building the Curriculum 5
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Maxine Garson, Highlands Council. Maxine Garson, is School Liaison Officer - Skills for Work. Graduated in 2000 from Glasgow University and took up a post in Glen Urquhart High School as Teacher of Technology. Involved in development for the Scottish Progression Award in Rural Skills and piloted the course through business partnership delivery. Seconded in Feb 2007 to further develop the roll out of Skills for Work Rural Skills through business partnerships to overcome the geographical issues of course delivery in the Highland Region. Secondment further extended until 2011 to develop all Skills for Work courses and the management/development of Regional Quality Assurance pilot with SQA. SQA External Verifier for Rural Skills. maxine.garson@highland.gov.uk
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Dr I R Gomersall B.Sc., Ph.D., C.Phys., M.Inst.P., FRSA. Bob Gomersall is Chairman and founder of BTL Group Ltd. (set up in 1985) and Virtual College Group plc (set up in 1995). The focus of BTL’s work is on Learning and Assessment Systems and Content. Virtual College specialises in work based and online training. Bob is also Chairman of the Advanced Digital Institute, which he started developing in 2002, Chairman of the Yorkshire Forward Digital Cluster Board, and a member of the Airedale Partnership Board. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and the universities of Durham and Bristol. He has worked as a Theoretical Physicist (at the Max Planck Institut, Stuttgart) and as a teacher of physics (at Manchester and Bradford Grammar Schools). He was Head of Physics at Bradford Grammar School before going full-time into business. He and his wife (who is a Medical General Practitioner in Bradford) have four children, 3 boys and a girl, ranging in age from 15 to 27 years old. www.btl.com
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Prof. Phillip John, SCHOLAR Programme, Heriot-Watt University, was born in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales into a mining family. He is currently Professor of Chemistry and Dean of Science and Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. In the thirty-five years that he has been with Heriot-Watt he has published over 150 papers and eight patents and supervised 28 PhDs and had extensive learning and teaching experience. Ten years ago he led the Chemistry team in the creation of e-learning materials inside the SCHOLAR courseware (http://scholar.hw.ac.uk). Since 2002 he has managed the SCHOLAR programme, and is Chair of the legal consultative body (the SCHOLAR Forum), which delivers complete Higher and Advanced Higher e-learning courses to students in virtually every state secondary school in Scotland, the independent sector and FE Colleges. The SCHOLAR team has successfully integrated the research findings of the PASS-IT assessment programme into the SCHOLAR courseware in over 20 subjects in mathematics, science, business and modern languages and represents a major deployment of formative e-assessment. He has been a member of the interim Management Board of the e-Assessment Association since its inception in 2006 and is currently Deputy Chairman of eAA.
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Dr Christine Merrell, CEM, Durham University. Dr Christine Merrell has worked at CEM for 15 years and is the Director of Primary Systems. During this time she has developed assessments for children aged between 3-14 years, including assessments of reading, mathematics, English vocabulary, non-verbal ability and motor development. Christine directs large-scale assessment systems which are used by several thousand schools in the UK and internationally. Other experience includes the evaluation of a range of educational interventions, and the provision of in-service training for teachers and education authority personnel in relation to assessment and monitoring pupils’ progress. Her research interests include investigating ways of helping severely inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive children to succeed in the classroom.
Christine.Merrell@cem.dur.ac.uk
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Denis Saunders – Founder and Managing Director, Calibrand
Calibrand’s Founder and Managing Director, Denis has developed Calibrand the currency for talent® into a leading e-Assessment solutions organisation that operates internationally. Calibrand’s ‘e-Assessment anytime, anywhere and on any device’ ethos has been successful in diverse global markets such as financial services regulation, government compliance, medical revalidation, awarding bodies, corporate talent management and international IT certification.
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Linda Steedman, Managing Director of eCom Scotland, a premier provider of eAssessment & eLearning solutions. Linda originated eCom from an EU research project in 1996 and spun out in 1999, completing the MBO in 2001. Over the last 14 years eCom has been involved in research and development in new models and techniques of eAssessment & eLearning delivery. Linda’s background is in education and technology, with over 20 years of involvement in a variety of training & academic institutions, she has also run a number of very successful European research & development projects
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.Martyn Ware is SQA’s Business Manager for CAA, a position he has held since SQA first established a dedicated CAA team in May 2003. Prior to this Martyn has worked in a number of areas of SQA’s operations including most recently managing some of its international activities. Martyn has an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business. www.sqa.org.uk
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Matt Wingfield, TAG Developments. Matt has over nineteen and a half years experience Matt Wingfield. With over twenty-two years experience within the UK education market including seven years as a primary school teacher and ICT Coordinator and more recently over thirteen years experience working in a variety of roles for TAG Developments, a leading provider of e-Portfolio/evidence based e-assessment solutions for schools, F.E., H.E. and work-place training, and as the membership secretary for the eAssessment Association, Matt has built-up significant understanding of the issues relating to assessment within education. Matt is dedicated to building close and highly productive partnerships with key stakeholders within the wider education market, so that through promoting greater awareness of the innovative e-assessment and e-verification/moderation systems available, he can continue helping educators and learners to gain the most out of using effective e-assessment as an integral part of teaching and learning.
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