A brief detail of their presentations are as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patrick Coates | CEO, eAssessment Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patrick\u2019s presentation will take us through the evolution of exam marking: from paper-based workflows (physical scripts, postal logistics, manual processes) to on-screen marking at scale. He will outline why digital marking emerged; addressing slow turnaround, inconsistent marking, security risks, and limited analytics and how early digitisation focused on replicating paper processes before platforms began to redesign workflows for quality and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will be sharing his experience and knowledge on high-volume scanning of handwritten scripts into secure digital images (e.g., PDF\/TIFF) with centralised storage, enabling faster distribution to markers, reducing the risk of lost scripts, and improving audit trails\u2014while keeping marking judgements human-led.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patrick will highlight how purpose-built on-screen marking systems introduced capabilities such as digital annotation, item-level marking, standardisation tools (seed scripts\/exemplars), and real-time monitoring. Processes supporting more consistent and scalable marking and earlier detection of marker drift or bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, the session hopes to explore the transition to AI-assisted marking, where advances in machine learning and NLP enable AI scoring; used most commonly in formative contexts, with human-in-the-loop approaches applied more cautiously in summative settings. He hopes to discuss typical use cases (e.g., pre-scoring\/triage and flagging anomalous responses for human review) and the \u2018road ahead\u2019 including the need for transparency\/explainability and defensible regulatory frameworks as AI becomes part of scalable assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alison Gibson Head of Digital Education from the University of Birmingham <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUniversities across the country and the globe are trying to figure out how to provision in-person exams with increased student numbers. BYOD? Build more computer clusters? Or mark paper scripts online? This talk will be a whistle-stop tour of how the University of Birmingham has moved from individual academics scanning their own scripts, to a multi-year institutional project that aims to provide script scanning for 80% of written exams. I\u2019ll cover: the tools used, the stakeholders involved, the biggest hurdles to overcome, and the next steps in a long but necessary project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dan O’Meara Senior Digital Education Manager from Kings College London<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
“Starting in May 2021, the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical, and Engineering Sciences (NMES) at King\u2019s College London began initial pilots of Gradescope to facilitate digital marking of handwritten exams. In our Faculty\u2019s subject areas (Chemistry, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, Physics, and interdisciplinary natural sciences), the project was a clear fit: paper-based exams give students the flexibility to handwrite formulae and diagrams while Gradescope\u2019s platform offers markers the convenience and efficiency of digital marking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the pilot stage presented considerable challenges (getting buy-in, building processes, establishing stakeholder relationships, etc.), the transition to more established business-as-usual practice has also come with a range of lessons learned. As we scaled up the number of scripts to scan\u2014in 2025, we scanned 350,000 pages of exams\u2014some of our practices established during the pilot began to break down. With increasing interest from academics, and with the project still overseen by the Faculty\u2019s small team of three learning technologists (who are also supporting non-Gradescope exams during the assessment period), the scanning process surfaced new bottlenecks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also surfaced new opportunities. Building on the momentum and buy-in from NMES academics, leadership, and professional services teams, we have taken a reflective, iterative approach to sustainably grow our capacity. This has included changes to our exam template, a new multi-team staffing model, and a revamped data collection strategy to analyse and learn from the scanning process itself. I will outline our current approach and key takeaways as we have grown by 70% year-on-year over the past two academic cycles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-25.png?resize=734%2C550&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Digital assessment special interest group will be hosting a webinar on Digital exams and paper script scanning on the 28 January 2026 from 13:00 to 14:30 in the afternoon. Register for the webinar on Digital Exams and Paper script scanning. A brief detail of their presentations are as follows. Patrick Coates | CEO, eAssessment […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1709,1944,1399],"tags":[1258,2015,2317,740],"class_list":["post-13513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assessment","category-digital-assessment-sig","category-online-assessment","tag-altc-2","tag-ai-in-assessment","tag-alt-digital-assessment-sig","tag-assessment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-25.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13502,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2026\/01\/training-staff-to-use-digital-assessment-tools-webinar\/","url_meta":{"origin":13513,"position":0},"title":"Training staff to use Digital Assessment tools Webinar","author":"ALT","date":"7 January 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Our first webinar of this Academic year \u201cTraining Staff to use Digital Assessments\u201d was completed in November, you can review the whole webinar on the\u00a0ALT youtube channel. 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