A two day conference for practitioners and developers of e-Assessment

Past Events

Proceedings for 8th CAA Conference 2004

Foreword (2004)

Welcome to the Eighth International CAA Conference at Loughborough University.

This year the organising committee elected to call for submissions of ‘Long Papers’ as well as ‘Short Papers’. The aim here is to include work in progress in order that contributors may benefit from the experience of our delegates, so please be constructive and kind in your feedback! All submissions were double blind reviewed in entirety, and I thank the reviewers for their efforts in putting together such a diverse and high quality programme.

This year we have partnered with the Association of Learning Technology Journal (ALT-J) and a selection of our papers will be republished in their special edition on assessment.

I’m also very pleased to present our first ever invited Key Note speaker. Randy Bennett of ETS has travelled from New Jersey to fulfil this aspect on Day 1. For those delegates unable to attend Day 1 Randy will make a second presentation on a different theme during Day 2.

Nationally and internationally we’ve seen the field of CAA broaden and become more commonplace. Over the last year the term E-Assessment has emerged, presumably in line with E-Commerce, E-Learning etc. Indeed, a recent QCA announcement outlines plans to deliver national curriculum GCSE and A Level qualifications through online, E-Assessment systems. QCA have contributed a paper in this programme.

Our conference is supported by commercial sponsorship and we continue to run commercial presentations and host a display area. This year Questionmark Computing are joined by BTL and the University of Cambridge Local Exams Syndicate (UCLES). Please do take time to engage with our commercial partners.

Lastly I would like to take this opportunity to honour a personal friend and much respected colleague. Known by many, and much valued, Joanna Bull passed away last month and will be greatly missed. Joanna was one of, if not the leading light in CAA in the UK, and was well known both here and internationally. Many colleagues at this event will have benefited in some way through working with, or receiving guidance from Joanna. On your behalf, and in memory of a fantastic person, I propose and announce the Joanna Bull Prize for Best Paper. I hope you agree this is a fitting tribute, and offers the opportunity to remember Jo in future years.

The programme is wide and varied. As such I won’t pick highlights but invite you to drop in and out of sessions as you see fit.

Welcome, enjoy the conference, networking and (of course) the casino.

Myles Danson
July 2004