SOLAR

SOLAR ™ is the name of SQA’s e-Assessment service . It has been delivering quality enhanced assessment to SQA centres since 2005 and continues to make available an increasing number of summative and formative e-assessments based on banks of quality-assured question items. These e-assessments cover a range of qualifications from National Certificate to Higher National Diploma (HND). These questions are developed by subject specialists within SQA centres and supported with training and technical expertise from the SOLAR Support Team in SQA.

Built to meet the growing requirements for highly scalable, secure onscreen assessment solutions, SecureAssess provides the next generation of technologies for the delivery of online and LAN assessments managed from one central web-based application. It has been developed by BTL, a Yorkshire-based e-assessment and e-learning company. It is now the UK’s leading e-assessment solution used by SQA to enhance and support the assessment of its qualifications.

SecureAssess uses web services and Adobe Flex technology to offer a full set of open APIs for the easy integration and extension of the system. SecureAssess also provides a web service framework to allow for further enhancements of reports and exports (such as candidate progress, results, usage etc.)

Key features include:

Only requires a browser and internet access to manage assessment delivery and access an assessment.

• Availability of instant feedback to learners on result and review of completed assessments
• A range of secure delivery options, from completely web based to an offline standalone mode.
• Supports a variety of question types, from simple multiple choice to interactive virtual environments.
• Management of cohort groups within and across centres.
• Includes a “Human Marker” interface for manual marking of free-text questions.
• Support for accessibility built into the learner's assessment with the candidate having control over its use. 
• Comprehensive reporting and analysis.

"Aberdeen College has been using the SOLAR online exam system for several years. Exams are taken by students across most of the curriculum areas offered. Evaluation of both staff and student use shows that both groups find the exam software very user friendly, being simple and easy to use. Students particularly like getting the instant results and the review feature at the end of the exam. Teaching staff like the fact that using SOLAR reduces their marking load whilst at the same time ensuring that students are adequately assessed in line with SQA requirements and guidelines. They have delivered training sessions to all teaching staff involved with SOLAR and they have all commented on how easy the whole administration system is from scheduling exams, to using the reporting facility. Being able to allocate a different mix of questions to students in the same class also makes the invigilation of the test sessions easier."

"Here at Clydebank College we have implemented the solar assessments in the HN Computing program, the students enjoy using their PC to sit the tests and like the immediate feedback they receive from the test engine. The college also benefits from obtaining a set of pre-verified SQA-constructed assessment instruments thus allowing staff to devote more time to improving the learning process for students&rdquo."

The assessments available within SOLAR are generated dynamically from an itembank of questions The summative assessments have been created and packaged by SQA and quality assured by External Verifiers.  The same bank of questions also provides the content for the delivery  of formative assessments available through OpenAssess. If you are interested in the SOLAR delivering new assessments based on its Itembank of Quality questions then please email SOLAR Helpdesk with your ideas.