Blog
Posts for category: Research
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Tackling Reliability in Adaptive Comparative Judgement: What RM Compare Users Need to Know
If you’ve been following the evolution of digital assessment, you’ll know that Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) is transforming how we judge quality—especially with platforms like RM Compare. But you might also have heard about concerns over “inflated reliability statistics.” Is this something to worry about? Let’s look at what the research says, and why RM Compare users can be reassured.
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New Research Confirms: RM Compare Delivers Reliable and Fair Spoken Language Assessment
The landscape of language assessment is evolving rapidly, especially with the 2020 update to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR-CV). This update redefines intelligibility—now encompassing both actual understanding and the perceived ease of understanding—making it a more holistic and communicative measure. But how do we assess this complex construct reliably and at scale? Enter Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) and, specifically, RM Compare.
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What the Recent Apple Study Taught Us About AI, Reasoning, and Assessment
In June 2025, Apple published a landmark study that has sent shockwaves through the AI and assessment communities. The research, titled The Illusion of Thinking, rigorously tested the reasoning abilities of the most advanced AI models—so-called large reasoning models (LRMs) from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others—using a series of classic logic puzzles designed to scale in complexity. The findings have profound implications for how we understand AI’s capabilities, especially in the context of educational assessment.
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A Decade of Change: How Research Interest in Comparative Judgement Has Evolved
The world of assessment is changing-and if you’ve spent any time exploring the RM Compare blog, you’ll know that Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) is at the heart of that transformation. But how has the research community’s interest in Comparative Judgement (CJ) changed over the past ten years? Let’s take a look at the journey.
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Exploring the relationship between value and original content
This interesting and novel piece of research brought together two new, innovative products to explore the relationship between content originality and value.
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Preparing for the Jobs of Tomorrow: How RM Compare Aligns with Future Skills Demands
As we look towards 2030, the global job market is set to undergo significant transformation. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 highlights key skills that will be crucial for the workforce of the future.
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Using Adaptive Comparative Judgement to assess Physical Education at scale across school groups
Can we reliably, efficiently and effectively using Adaptive Comparative Judgement to assess Physical Education using Video artefacts? It seems we can!
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From Cheating Prevention to Assessment Validity: A Paradigm Shift in Digital Assessment
In the rapidly evolving world of educational technology, a groundbreaking study published in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is challenging our approach to digital assessments. The research, titled "From academic integrity to assessment validity: a paradigm shift in digital assessment" by Phillip Dawson and colleagues, argues for a fundamental change in how we view and implement online assessments.
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Supporting research and inquiry
We support a broad range of research projects. Our engagement in each case is context specific however there are some general principles.