We have developed a number of assessors for different IT skills, some for Schools, some for Higher Education and some for National and International Examination Boards. We have concentrated on summative examinations although some of the software is being used for pre-course testing and for formative assessment.

Word Processing Skills

Several packages have been developed for assessing word processing skills. The Schools and Higher Education versions have simple assessment criteria since the requirements are to test whether the student can perform word processing tasks with few errors. The professional version developed for an Examination Board has much more complex assessment criteria involving classifying errors into many different categories with the result depending on the number of errors in each category.

Spreadsheet Skills

Several versions of a spreadsheet assessor have been developed. A template-based version tests whether candidates can perform a series of function tests such as placing a formula in a cell, deleting a row and altering the attributes of a cell. An event-based version tests the method by which a candidate makes changes as well as the correctness of the result. A full-skills version tests whether a candidate can design a spreadsheet as well as produce a correct implementation.

File Management Skills

An assessor has been produced for an Examination Board to test a candidate's skill at managing files. This consists of a mixture of MCQ and action questions, driven by a script which determines the assessment performed.