National Capacity Development Workshop on Large-scale Assessment

National Capacity Development Workshop on Large-scale Assessment

Education Review Office (ERO), with the financial support from the World Bank and technical support from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), India, conducted one week long National Capacity Development workshop on large-scale assessment from 29 October to 3 November 2017 in Kathmandu. The main objective of the workshop was to develop National Capacity on large-scale assessment, particularly on modern test theory-Item Response Theory (IRT). The workshop sessions were interactive as each of the workshop days was set in such a way that there were both the sessions for theoretical understanding as well as practice of learnt skills. Ms Mee Young Han (Psychometrician) and Dr Mariya Khatoon (Data Analyst), both from ACER, facilited the workshop.There were altogether 21 participants among them 16 were participanted regularly and rest 5 were participated in selected sessions. Workshop participants were form ERO, National Examination Board (NEB), Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE), faculties from universities and researchers and data analysts from the agencies working in the field of education.

This workshop is the first phase of three weeks capacity development program on large-scale assessment as the next phase will include some advance data analysis skills on IRT using ConQuest software as well as reporting strategies and techniques. The major contents areas covered in the first phase of the workshops were data management using Excel and SPSS, Item analysis in Classical Test Theory (CTT), Concepts and theory of IRT, Comparison of CTT and IRT, introduction to ConQuest software, Rasch Model and Item Characteristic Curve (ICC). Similarly, it also included concepts of item fit, differentiating item function and equating the different sets of items.