“The arrival of on-screen and online high stakes assessment has been predicted for many years.”

Those are not my words, but the words of the exam regulator Ofqual back in 2020, in their report on the barriers to greater adoption of high stakes on-screen and online assessments, and how these barriers may be overcome. 

Perhaps the wait for these digital assessments is finally over because in recent months all three main exam boards in England have announced plans to start digitising their exams – particularly GCSEs. 

So what have been the experiences so far with high stakes digital assessments in this country and abroad? What barriers will digital exams face in England if they are to be delivered at scale every year? And are digital exams potentially fairer than assessments done on pen and paper? 

Our guests today are Grainne Hallahan, senior analyst at the Times Educational Supplement, and Hayley White, the Vice President of Assessment, Standards and Services at Pearson who own the Edexcel exam board. 

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