Progress Overview

CUSTOMER OVERVIEW

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Overview of Progress

The first ever fully automated, integrated skills test package specifically designed to objectively and

accurately measure student progress across all skills during a course. Progress delivers fast and precise results against a standard and

granular scale for each test and by skill to truly inform teaching and learning.

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Notas de la presentación

Progress is a unique and first ever assessment tool for institutions. There is no other product like it on the market right now. It uses Pearson patented technology to automatically score all skills including speaking and writing. It scores against the Global Scale of English, a fine-grained and decimal scale to give precise scoring within a CEFR band It delivers personal score charts by skill for each test to demonstrate progress at skill level as well as an overall score

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What is Progress?

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Course agnostic: stand-alone tests can be used with any course to measure real ability rather than course coverage

3 tests taken at start, middle and end of a course: measures progress across the course

6 levels of entry point by class level: generates precise measure in 40 mins

Single item bank: no repetition of the same item across the 3 tests

Online and adaptive test: unique to each student according to responses given

Personal score report: measures progress by skill to highlight areas to focus on

Institutionally administered: tests taken at the institution or at home

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Progress is a package of 3 tests meant to be used at the start, middle and end of course to see progress made across the duration of a course. The test is online and adaptive so each student has a unique test which adapts to their own answers to give the most precise score of their level. It is different to a placement test in that it is used once the students have been placed at a class level and it can score the students precisely within that level for each of their skills. The 6 entry points allow the test to score them in the shortest possible time It can be used with any course regardless of whether institutions are using a Pearson course or not. The content of the test is skills based to measure usage and improvement of language use rather than specific course coverage. The tests can be taken at the institution or students can do them at home if the teacher is happy for them to. The test uses a single item bank which has been rigorously field tested and calibrated to the scale to give a high level of reliability.

What is Progress?

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Automatically and objectively scored: delivers fast and objective results including speaking and writing

Measures all skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing, in addition to grammar and vocabulary

Integrated skills test: tests language how it is realistically used in natural contexts

Consistent & standardised: field tested item bank fully calibrated to the Global Scale of English

Empirically linked to the CEFR: gives a precise measure of level within a CEFR band

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Measures across all skills and gives a score report by skill and Can do descriptor tested to help students and teachers identify areas requiring the most improvement so students and teachers know where to focus their attention We integrate language skills to communicate naturally, so this is how we need to test language ability rather than by discrete skills Automatic scoring enables results to be delivered in 10-30 mins, much quicker than teacher’s manual grading and using an objective scoring engine for the most reliable results Standardised tests means that institutions can trust that each student is receiving the same experience and results are comparable across the 3 tests, classes, course materials and levels. The Global Scale of English has been empirically aligned to the CEFR to enhance the CEFR with more precise scoring within a band.

Score comparisons to other test scales

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Rigorously correlated to other test score scales. All our correlation studies are supported by research and studies conducted by ETS (exam body for TOEIC and TOEFL). NB a score on progress can be used as an indicator of a score on an internally recognised test, but not a guarantee.

Which students is it appropriate for?

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Adults, young adults studying in PLS, tertiary or upper secondary institutions. The test material is not age appropriate for lower secondary students or young learners but we do plan on publishing a junior version for younger ages.

What does it offer institutions?

An accurate picture of students’ real language proficiency Measurement of the impact of courses across teachers, classes,

levels and course materials The ability to improve learning outcomes and their offering to

students based on evidence A high quality assessment tool to attract outcome-focused students

who want to see results without excessive costs

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What does it offer teachers?

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Time saving from creating and grading tests to focus on using the results to inform their teaching

The ability to create needs-based lesson plans and prioritise learning according to strengths and weaknesses of the class

Evidence that their teaching is effective in making a real difference to their students’ progression

Job satisfaction and pride in helping their students’ reach their goals and seeing their achievement

What does it offer students?

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An accurate score of their level in a short time

The insight to focus their study time in the areas that need more attention

Evidence of their progress within a class level to motivate them to keep studying

Evidence of their level against a standard benchmark that they can use outside the classroom where a international certificate is not required

How does Progress compare to other available assessment tools?

Value for money: as robust as high stakes tests without the cost Convenient: as easy to administer as home-made tests whilst saving time and

resource High quality: as accessible as practice tests or course-related tests with precise and objective measurement across 4 skills

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There is no other assessment tool like Progress currently available. Progress fits into a unique space in the mix of assessment tools available: Internationally recognised tests which are very rigorous and credible, but are expensive to use as a Progress measure. Home made tests are free in monetary terms but are resource intensive (usually manually scored and need administration of speaking and writing) and often not objective and reliable measures if not rigorously field tested. Practice tests and course related tests are specific to the test being prepared for or the course being studied. They are not for general purpose for testing overall proficiency.

What do students get?

An access card giving access to a set of 3 tests at one of the 6 entry levels A sample test showing some example test items A system check wizard to ensure they have the correct software on their computer (any required downloads are free)

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Progress – how it works

Scores reported on Global Scale of English by skill and weak areas

identified

Period of study

Start of course test

Join course

Mid course test

End of course test

Progress across the course is measured

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The gateway for accessing progress is the MyEnglishLab platform. Institutions do NOT need to be using a MEL to use progress. Students register their access code, create an account and join a class with the class ID from the teacher. The teacher assigns the start-of-course test, they get their score report and review strengths and weaknesses. The first half of course will be informed by the first test. The students take the mid course test, progress is reviewed against the start of course test and any adjustments are made in lesson planning for the second period of study. At the end of the course, the final test is completed and progress is reviewed across the duration of the course.

Homepage

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Homepage – progress is accessible as a course on the home screen

Course page

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Click on the course icon to access the tests. Teacher need to assign the tests when they want the students to take them.

Assign settings

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Teachers can choose whether they want students to be able to pause and resume the test, and whether thye want to activate the timer.

Activity (test) page

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Gradebook: teacher overview

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Gradebook: teacher overview of all students by test Advisory status shows students below the level, above the level, where one skill score is outside the level. Re-test or pending could be where scores cannot be returned for some reason.

Gradebook: teacher view by student and skill

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Gradebook: teacher view by student and skill. TOC can be collapsed to show grammar & vocab scores.

Gradebook: teacher view by test

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Gradebook: teacher view by test: drill down into TOC to shoe scores for each test. Grades can be exported.

Gradebook: student overview

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Gradebook: student overview by skill and by test

Diagnostics: Teacher view by student and test

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Diagnostics: Teacher view by student and test More graphical way to see the information

Diagnostics: Individual student report by skill

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Diagnostics: Individual student report by skill

Diagnostics: Individual student report by “can do” descriptors

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Diagnostics: Individual student report by “can do” descriptors Unprecedented level of detail that has never before been scored on a standard scale for individual students. Shows learning Object which need most attention.

Hide/Reveal student scores

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In course settings, teachers can change the gradebook colour scheme, and decide whether the grades are revealed to students straight away or if they want to review grades before showing them to students.

May 2014 – 3 lower levels

• Progress 15-30 (<A1 / A1)

• Progress 25-40 (A1 / A2+)

• Progress 35-50 (A2 / B1)

2015 – 3 upper levels

• Progress 45-60 (B1 / B2)

• Progress 55-70 (B1+ / B2+)

• Progress 65-80 (B2 / C1)

When will Progress be available?

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Overlapping of levels to allow for high and low scoring students at each level. 15 points in each level to allow for some mixed abilities in single classes: it is highly unlikely that any students will progress the full 15 points in a single level and this should not be the expectation. The amount of progress that any student will make depends on a number of factors including individual motivation, learning style, aptitude for learning languages, so there is no expected amount of progress across all students.

Documents

Progress Overview