Stanmore chose the Questionmark for Windows software to enable them to create questions and tests and run them over a network computer. In fact the software had already been in use at the college for some time as a teaching aid and a preparation mechanism for final exams.

Diagnostic tests were quickly created using the software for the entry, enrolments and induction process. Explains Singer: Using Questionmark for Windows, we were able to deliver the tests to the students and get instant results. We were then able to do an analysis within 24 hours and timetable the students immediately they start their programme. Now, when students enrol they are programmed and placed into tutor groups. The tutor groups are then called up, two or three at a time, to sit the tests in Stanmore’s learning resource centre. This is done over two to three days.”

Following the success of the network-based diagnostic tests, Stanmore has now decided to move them online by deploying its intranet. Stanmore has chosen Questionmark’s latest software, called Perception, to create the new tests. Questionmark Perception enables users to create questions, organise those questions into secure tests and run the tests over the web or intranet. A built in reporting tool will then analyse the test answers.

Explains Questionmark’s UK sales manager Philippa Bean: “Perception will enable Stanmore to create exactly the same kind of tests as with Questionmark for Windows. But now the tests can be linked directly to other web based education resources and information enabling Stanmore to leverage its intranet as an fully integrated teaching aid. Moreover, existing questions created in Questionmark for Windows can also be exported into Perception. Going online will also greatly simplify the delivery of tests, and make the results immediately available for analysis.”

Stanmore is also exploring other applications for Perception, including self-assessment formative testing and other ‘quality surveys’ currently done on paper, where students report back on the quality of the education process.