This innovative advanced course in Item Writing for language tests has been created to facilitate the needs of those item writers who need a more in-depth knowledge and solutions. 

The course also tackles the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Item Writing and will demonstrate how AI can be used in the process. 

The course will be divided into two parts: Advanced Item Writing sessions, and elements of Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing. 

In the Item Writing part, you’ll look at the interplay between the language skills in assessment: reading, speaking, listening, and writing.  You’ll discuss choice of task type in relation to CEFR descriptors, in particular, communicative language competency descriptors.  Producing assessment criteria for speaking and writing as well as developing Test specifications and Item Writer Guidelines will also be covered.

For many organizations Language Test Item Writing has also become a digital process, with the use of digital resources, tools, and online applications. In the Advanced Elements of Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing sessions you will discuss the digital side of Item Writing: item types, configuring automatic or human correction, scores, using metadata, using on-the-fly test generation… 

You will also discuss questions such as:  

• How can AI help to generate materials for a test? 

• Can AI help to define the (CEFR) level of a question? 

• Can AI (help to) generate full items? 

• Should item writers think about automatic correction or grading when designing the items?

The course is divided into two parts across four full days and two half days.  Please see below how the course is structured, so you can plan your calendar accordingly. 

PART 1:    

Day 1: 04 June (Tuesday), 10 am* – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing: Communicative language competences and testing   

Day 2: 05 June (Wednesday), 10 am – 1 pm (half a day) – Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing 

Day 3: 06 June (Thursday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing: Communicative language competences and testing    – cont. 

PART 2:

Day 1: 25 June (Tuesday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing : Productive skills and assessment criteria

Day 2: 26 June (Wednesday), 10 am – 1 pm (half a day) – Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing 

Day 3: 27 June (Thursday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing  Productive skills and assessment criteria – cont.   Developing test Specifications and Item Writer Guidelines.

*All times are in the CET zone. 

Although ALTE created the course mainly for those who have participated in the ALTE Item Writing Basic course, the course is open to anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of Item Writing. If you haven’t participated in the ALTE Item Writing Basic course, the course tutor, Annie Broadhead, will run an additional session, so that you can refresh your knowledge, or catch-up if needed. This session is optional but will give you a useful overview and will set you up for the upcoming course. 

ADDITIONAL SESSION – Item Writing, basics: 

3 June (Monday), 2 pm – 4 pm CET. 

Please contact: servicesunit@alte.org if you'd like to participate in the additional session. 

Please note that it is possible to join part 1 or part 2 of this course only. 
However,  we encourage you to participate in both parts as this will be more beneficial, both for you, the tutors and other participants, so the same group can be maintained.  If you would like to join only one part of this course, please contact servicesunit@alte.org .

CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE

ALTE will issue a digital certificate of attendance for those who participated in at least 80% of the teaching hours (for the parts of the course they chose when signing up). 

The tutors are: Annie Broadhead and Bert Wylin, two world-class consultants to deliver this unique and state-of-art course. 

Annie Broadhead is an Assessment consultant, ESOL teacher trainer, test developer and ELT author based in Cambridge, UK. Annie has run online courses in the Principles of Testing and ALTE Item Writer courses in several countries. Annie has delivered various courses for ALTE across the years, such as ALTE Item Writing Course - Getting to know the basics; 

Bert Wylin has both an academic and a business profile. He has worked at the KU Leuven since 1993, leading the Education Innovation Centre (integrating EdTech in education). In 2001, he founded a KU Leuven university spin-off, now Televic Education, developing and servicing an e-assessment platform. Bert has delivered various courses for ALTE such as Developing Digital Assessments and Developing Digital Testing with Artificial Intelligence.  

Payment and Cancellation policy

Payment is in full when registering. Payment can only be made online using a Visa, MasterCard or American Express. 

In case of cancellation up until one month before the start of the events, the full amount will be refunded minus a €50 administration fee. However, in the case of cancellation after this date, no refunds can be made.  

Use of Personal Data Disclaimer

I agree that by clicking 'Register', the personal data I include in the registration form may be used and held by ALTE staff and third parties, only for the purposes related to the organisation of the ALTE Item Writing - Getting to know the basics course.