RM Compare Newsletter April 2024

By Mark House

Spring has sprung, the Human is in the Loop and bye-bye BETA! Another busy month passes for RM Compare with more exciting developments to follow.

Human in the Loop

I have been fortunate to attend a few excellent and thought-provoking conferences recently hosted by The Edge Foundation (Next Generation Assessment), The Open University (Navigating the Future - AI's Impact on Education) and DEFI Cambridge (AI-Powered Pedagogy: Designing the Future of Education). A common theme was of course Artificial Intelligence, however a notable change this year was the focus on the concept of 'Human in the Loop' (HITL).

The very essence of RM Compare of course is to use a Machine Learning algorithm to enhance human effort and expertise - humans are always 'in the loop'. The Human in the Loop philosophy is about leveraging the strengths of both human intelligence and machine capabilities to create systems that are more accurate, ethical, and responsive to human needs. It represents a shift from viewing automation as the removal of human involvement to seeing it as an opportunity for selective and meaningful human participation. This understanding is central to our efforts.

Partner News

Voice 21 - I was pleased to be able to attend the annual Speaking Summit recently in London. The event reported on some work we have completed together on oracy assessment where we used comparative judgment to assess the oracy skills of 463 Year 5 students in 55 Voice 21 Oracy Schools across England and Wales, generating an average school oracy score. You can read more about the study in the Voice 21 Impact Report.

Independent Schools Examination Board - The ISEB recently launched their 'Time to Write' competition. This groundbreaking creative writing competition will use RM Compare to shortlist entries from around the world. RM Compare will be attending and presenting at theISEB 'Future of Assessment' Conference later this month.

Bye-Bye Beta

RM Compare moved into BETA at the end of May last year. At the time we said "We are not setting a fixed time on this however we do not expect it to be less than 8 months". We can reveal that we expect to be leaving BETA 'very soon' and moving to General Availability (GA). More details will follow but this is a significant milestone and shows both the progress and confidence we have. Thanks to everyone who has joined us on the journey so far.

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