Ozi, Ozi, Ozi, Oi, Oi, Oi!

We’ve ventured Down Under to see if the Australian football supporters are ready to cheer for the Socceroos during the World Cup!

Just kidding! In fact, we are working hard speaking at public events, visiting customers and receiving the Platinum Award for Best Assessment Tool at LearnX Asia Pacific (our third year in a row to win this award in the Best-in-Class Technologies category)!

We are exhibiting and speaking at LearnX, which takes place this week in Sydney. I’ll be giving a presentation on “How to Measure the Talent you Manage” on Wednesday afternoon and Questionmark CEO Eric Shepherd will  present  “Assess Where it  Matters – Everywhere” on Thursday. So be sure to come see us if you are at LearnX!

Stay tuned for my next blog post, as we will be going to New Zealand to meet with our Kiwi users along with members of the New Zealand Association for Training and Development.

Packing for India and Questionmark Events in Bangalore and Mumbai

It is time to pack our suits and hit the road again…This time we are going to India!

We will be holding events in two different cities:

The first event will be on May 5th at the Taj Residency of Bangalore in the middle of the Indian Silicon Valley. You can register here.

The second event will be on May 7th at the Grand Hyatt in bustling Mumbai. You can register here.

Participants in these meetings will hear a power-packed briefing session on “Effectively measuring knowledge, skills and ability with well-crafted assessments.”

This briefing session will show how to create assessments that shed light on a person’s skill and ability as well as their knowledge. We will examine a number of different question types – as well as question writing techniques – that can be used to measure cognitive skills and abilities.

This session will help you:

 – Understand the relationship between knowledge, skills and abilities
 – Distinguish between cognitive processes and types of knowledge
 – Connect appropriate question types to specific skills
 – Write questions that probe more effectively into cognitive skills and abilities
 – Determine when to use “multiple choice” item formats versus constructed response

Also, Indian users of Questionmark Perception will explain how they are using our assessment solutions.

South African Questionmark Users Will Meet on April 20

I am thrilled today as I am en route to Johannesburg for Questionmark’s Annual South African Users Meeting. No time to Watch the World Cup this time around but I’ll hopefully be back in SA in a couple of months!

We will be holding our annual South African Users Meeting close to Jo’burg (as locals refer to Johannesburg), in the city of Midrand, on April 20th.  I am particularly excited about the meeting this year, as more and more users have completed the upgrade to the latest version of Questionmark Perception.

Our South African customers will gather at the meeting to share information and learn from each others’ experiences. Of course, it also will be a wonderful occasion to show the latest developments from Questionmark and to discuss best practices in online assessment management. The South African Questionmark users meeting is the best chance to network and learn from other users and speak face-to-face with Questionmark team.

Some main topics to be discussed:

• New features available in Questionmark Perception version 5
• The latest release of Questionmark Live

The South African Users Meeting is one of many Questionmark worldwide events. As I write this, Questionmark events are being organized in the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, USA, India, New Zealand and Australia.  Look out for a post-Users Meeting blog entry from me!

Full house at learning event in New Zealand

I posted recently about an upcoming  three-day learning event in Auckland, New Zealand, focusing on assessment best practices. Now I’d like to update you on the great turnout, exciting customers, and the full house that participated in the workshop!

The Online Assessments Symposium organized by Business Toolbox was packed with learning opportunities: the first two days were devoted to instruction on best practices in creating assessments, and the third brought together industry experts to share advice about moving assessments online.

It was motivating to see academic and corporate Questionmark users sharing  their experiences in successfully implementing assessments and enjoying some impressive case study presentations. I took these photos with my BlackBerry to give you a sense of the group that gathered.

We will continue to perform workshops like this one around the world so stay tuned for our next location.

Three-Day Symposium in New Zealand: Focus on Assessment Best Practices

Posted by Rafael Lami Dozo

I am looking forward to an exciting three-day learning event in Auckland, New Zealand, an Online Assessments Symposium organized by Business Toolbox. The first two days will be devoted to instruction on best practices in creating assessments, and the third will bring together industry experts to share advice about moving assessments online.

Last month I presented a similar program in Colombia, and the response was tremendous. A good number or people from both New Zealand and Australia have already registered for the Auckland symposium, and we still have room for a few more. You may opt to register for one or both workshops, but registration will end soon so I encourage you to act now if you would like to join us. Not only is this a great learning opportunity: it also will give you the chance to network with other learning and assessment professionals in the region.

Here are some of the activities we have planned:

August 10 and 11 (Monday and Tuesday) will feature an intensive 2-day workshop: Creating Assessments that Get Results. This course is designed to instruct and engage you in applying best practices for online assessment design, development and delivery.

On August 12 (Wednesday) we will hold a seminar on Putting Your Assessments Online. The seminar  will feature an excellent line-up of industry experts and practitioners who will talk about assessment best practice and their own experiences with moving from paper-based to online assessments.

This is a great opportunity for you to see examples of what other organizations are doing, and network with your industry peers.  I hope to see many of you at the symposium!

Please feel free to post your comments and questions below or you can contact me directly.