5 benefits of switching to digital assessments — and why now is the ideal time
The days of printed record forms and looking up norms tables can be put behind you when your school transitions to digital assessments. And the timing is ideal, as the WIAT-4: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test - Fourth Edition Canadian (WIAT-4 CDN) is now available to purchase on all digital platforms as well as paper-and-pencil administration.
If you’ve yet to invest in digital initiatives, this could be your pivot point. Here’s what to know about the benefits of digital assessments.
5 benefits of digital assessments
Transitioning to digital assessments brings about significant benefits at three different levels: for organizations, examiners and students.
1: Digital assessments improve organizational productivity.
Digital assessments remove the cumbersome process of distributing paper kits, collecting them and manually scoring them. Schools can save a substantial amount of time and effort by automating tasks such as test administration, scoring and analyzing data. It can also help yield better decisions with fewer errors and ensures instant access when needing to revisit results.
2: Digital assessments offer an improved student experience.
For students, digital assessments result in enhanced engagement with examiners and increased time for building rapport. For examiners, technology enables them to be more attuned to their students and enhance behavioral observations. It also removes the confusion in fumbling to the right page in the manual and making sure they are marking the right questions. In addition, it provides more equity (and less stress) by reducing both administration and scoring errors.
3: Digital assessments are cost-effective.
While some school districts might initially be daunted to take on a digital conversion, making the investment today will pay off over time.
First, switching to digital assessments flattens your investment by offering the advantage of billing through pay-per-use or subscription models. This provides a more predictable and manageable cost based solely on the number of assessments conducted by your organization.
Second, it offers access to the most updated test at any given time. The lifecycle of a test is around 10 to 18 years, so districts have to make a substantial investment all at once when the cycle rolls around and they need to replace traditional paper kits. Given that there’s not just one test, but many, upgrading to new editions can entail a significant cost. With a digital product, as long as your subscription is active, you can access the latest and greatest.
4: Digital assessments promote equity.
Increasingly, educators are using digital options to facilitate the use of test materials across wide geographic regions, which means that all students have access, even those in rural, lower-income or other underserved areas. It also can ensure that marginalized populations have equal access to materials that can help identify areas where schools need extra support to close existing achievement gaps.
As Canada focuses on improving literacy through efforts such as the 2022 Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read initiative, it’s critical that all students have access to the support they need. Pearson Clinical Assessment’s Digital Assessment Library offers unlimited use of a library of more than 40 assessments (including the WIAT-4 CDN once it’s released) to districts for a fixed, annual price, enabling the early identification of learning needs for every student.
5: Educators will increasingly expect a digital-first classroom.
The education community are early adopters of tech, in general, and that will only continue as newer practitioners enter the classroom. We see university programs incorporating digital kits into their instruction. As they recognize the classroom is increasingly turning digital, they’re baking that into their school programs to ensure students are equipped for this reality. As these new educators enter the profession, it will become more of an expectation and eventually a necessity as you aim to attract and retain staff.
Future-proof your assessment strategy today
The overwhelming response we hear from districts that have taken the plunge is that they wish they had switched to digital assessments earlier. Almost universally, they say that once they have made the switch, they could never see themselves going back.
The WIAT-4 CDN is now available on both of our digital platforms (Q-global and Q-interactive).With this game-changing test available, now is the time to transform your assessments by embracing a digital strategy. For more details about the WIAT-4 CDN, including how to order or register for professional training, check out the product page.