Award-winning assessment software goes commercial

Workplace ready graduates will be easily distinguishable thanks to web-based student assessment software, ReView, which will be released commercially this year.

The brainchild of Darrall Thompson from the UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, the software uses student self-assessment compared with tutor assessment to engage students and create career ready graduates in any field. ReView aims to reduce the emphasis on exam marks and focus students on their development of a broad range of attributes, giving them charts and graphs to show progress through their course of study.

"acidgreen education saw the ReView prototype and the successful research behind it and have redeveloped it to a fully compliant html version that will be accessible on all mobile devices for release this year," Mr Thompson said.

"The commercial program is vastly improved in accessibility and configuration options, making it more widely available for student and teacher use."

The software has been piloted at a number of universities including The University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and Queensland University of Technology, and research results show time-savings for academics and improvements in student learning.

Darrall Thompson, right, at the Learning Impact Awards. Picture supplied by National Curriculum Services

The success of Thompson's creation was recognised recently when ReView was chosen as first runner-up in the Learning Impact Awards run by the IMS Global Learning Consortium in collaboration with Australia's National Curriculum Services. Presented at last month's !DEA Conference, the awards focus on the challenges facing education and seek to recognise the real-life impact on student learning that comes from the application of technology.

"This award recognises the practicality of a major shift from mere transmission of content to the development of graduate attributes in all levels of education," Mr Thompson said.

"This shift has been supported in educational research literature for 20 years and ReView online criteria-based assessment software now provides the means by which this can be achieved."

The award provides Thompson with a cash prize and trip to Toronto to enter the international finals of the 2012 Learning Impact Awards. acidgreen education's commercial version of ReView will be presented alongside Thompson's prototype. The awards are sponsored and endorsed by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

UTS Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Shirley Alexander said ReView is just one example of how research is actively changing teaching practices to benefit students learning processes and skills sets.

"ReView highlights the importance of connectedness between research, teaching and learning, and provides a platform for the development of new practices for both teachers and students," Professor Alexander said.

"At UTS we are committed to producing research that has impact. With ReView, we are ensuring that UTS students are directly benefiting from the latest research developments, helping ensure that we continue to prepare graduates that are industry ready."