By Valérie Barnabé
Students at Laurent Macdonald High School sitting their MYP eAssessment in 2016
Here at Laurier Macdonald High School, a public school located in Montreal, QC, Canada, our pedagogical team took the plunge and decided to take part in the first live eAssessments for the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP). We had been completing MYP moderation in previous years and we wanted to continue to offer IB certification to our students.
All in all, I’m happy to report a good first experience.
This year, we have 83 students in MYP Year 5, and all participated in five eAssessments. Facing the unknown was really stressful for the students and for me, the coordinator. Luckily, when we started looking at the familiarization package, as well as the practice examinations, we all felt much better but for different reasons: the students had an idea on how to play around with the software and I was able to deal with the logistics.
The challenges that we faced had to do with the logistics of the eAssessments – we had to have at least 83 computers available at the same time. In order to make this happen, we were able to get computers on loan from the schoolboard.
My top tips and recommendations for any school considering MYP eAssessment are:
1. Go to the OCC often and get ALL the related publications: It is important to get all the information such as the list of topics for each subject, the Global Context for the session, the partially completed unit planner for the e-portfolio, etc.
2. Use the list of topics: Sharing the list of topics for each subject with the teachers will reassure them a lot. They will see that what is happening in the classroom is also happening in the eAssessment.
3. Get practice time for the students: Plan time to do the familiarization exam as well as the different practice ones with the students. It reassures them a great deal
4. Get help: If you have a lot of students doing the eAssessments, don’t do this alone. Technology is great when it is working but when it’s not, it can be a real problem.
5. Don’t wait until the last minute: Be prepared. Don’t wait until the last minute to download the eAssessments, to send the examination once they are finished, to save a copy of the examination answer on an external drive, google account, etc.
6. Do not hesitate to call the IB eAssessment helpline during the examination: If something is not working, do not hesitate to call as they will try to fix the problem right away. I had to call and they were fast to fix the problem.
By doing eAssessments, the Laurier Macdonald pedagogical team implemented a quality standard offered by the IB to its students. And now, we are already planning for next year!
Valérie Barnabé is MYP Coordinator at Laurier Macdonald High School, a public school located in Montreal, QC, Canada.