Press Release: Shipley, United Kingdom – 3rd September 2019 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Surpass integrates with Dropbox to provide offline marking capabilities for the Institute of Masters of Wine.
In 2018, the Institute of Masters of Wine, a highly respected professional organisation which promotes excellence and knowledge in the art, science and business of wine, came to BTL with a unique need for the offline marking of their rigorous examinations.
Development of a solution involved a year-long pilot of the process which is now complete. BTL and the IMW have hailed this as a success, allowing the IMW to provide expert examiners with a convenient process for the marking of assessments.
“We were pleased to work with BTL to develop a solution that was appropriate for both our students and examiners. The team at BTL have been supportive throughout the development and roll out of the new solution which enables the exporting of candidate responses to Dropbox. This can be used for practice assessments, enabling candidates to retrieve their responses as part of their learning and development. It also means examiners can be given access to candidates’ work to mark without requiring a constant internet connection.”
Olivier Chapman, Head of Study Programme and Development at Masters of Wine
“Having the opportunity to integrate with services like Dropbox is an excellent way of demonstrating the flexibility of the Surpass APIs. Using Azure Logic Apps, BTL have been working on a number of similar projects that take Surpass to the next level of business process connectivity.”
Dave Dixon, Head of Solutions at BTL
Becoming a Master of Wine involves a demanding self-directed study programme, which takes a minimum of three years to complete. The examination itself is made up of three parts, and only after successfully passing all three elements is someone eligible for membership to this prestigious organisation. Amongst other skills being tested, candidates have to identify quality, grape variety, origin, and winemaking techniques, as well as answering questions on topics such as the influence of climate change, management of vineyards, and contemporary issues affecting the wine industry. Every year, only a small number of candidates pass all three rigorous stages and become a Master of Wine.
The Institute came to BTL with a unique requirement; they needed their examiners (all Masters of Wine themselves) to be able to view and mark essay responses on the go, as due to frequent travel commitments and roles which take them away from an internet connection, they cannot rely on having the capabilities to mark with an active internet connection.
BTL worked closely with the IMW to implement a solution using agile development that met this important requirement and were delighted to work with such an elite organisation to create a tool that worked for them.
To accommodate this unique challenge, BTL utilised the Azure logic app technology which provided an opportunity to develop a robust and rapid solution, and meet the immediate timelines of the project. Given the significant reputation of the IMW and the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with their examiners, the solution had to be seamless and easy to use.
The app is triggered once a candidate’s completed exam is submitted, and extracts the questions and candidate’s responses as a PDF document stored in a specified folder structure on Dropbox, for markers to view and mark at a time and place convenient for them. Integrating with Dropbox met the requirements perfectly, and gave minimal disruption to existing processes.
The logic app also plays an important role in formative testing throughout the study program. Students can access Word documents of their responses from Dropbox, to annotate and take away based on feedback from examiners. With candidates travelling from all corners of the world to one of only three test centres to demonstrate their knowledge and investing a lot of time and money into achieving the qualification, the candidate experience was another priority to the IMW.
It was imperative that candidates could focus fully on demonstrating their professional knowledge without worrying about how to use the assessment software. With Surpass, candidates can construct their essay responses in an intuitive environment, meaning they can spend their time demonstrating what they know in a straightforward manner, and without distraction.
As candidates need a large amount of desk space to accommodate the 12 different wines they need to taste during the practical assessment, traditional test centres with banks of computers just aren’t suitable for the IMW. As a result, they operate a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model, with candidates able to download the SecureClient to their laptop or tablet device in order to take the test securely, whilst allowing them flexibility with space and keeping all important desk real estate.
We are delighted to have the IMW as members of the Surpass Community. The integration with a logic app is a first for Surpass, and a great example of the flexibility of the platform, and how different approaches can be taken to best suit the needs of any organisation.
About the Institute of Masters of Wine
The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) is a membership organisation with an unsurpassed international reputation. Its Members – the Masters of Wine (MWs) – hold the most respected title in the world of wine. The IMW promotes excellence, interaction and learning across all sectors of the global wine community. MWs have proved their understanding of all aspects of wine by passing the MW examination, recognised worldwide for its rigour and high standards. In addition to passing the examination, MWs are required to sign the code of conduct before they are entitled to use the initials MW. The code of conduct requires MWs to act with honesty and integrity, and use every opportunity to share their understanding of wine with others. There are currently 382 Masters of Wine today, working in 29 countries. The membership encompasses winemakers, buyers, journalists, shippers, business owners, consultants, academics, and wine educators. There were 359 students in the 2018-19 MW study programme from over 45 countries.
About BTL and Surpass
Established in 1985, BTL Group Ltd. has grown into a renowned global provider of assessment technology and services trusted by some of the world’s highest profile providers of high-stakes summative assessments. Since 2007, BTL’s core focus has been the development of its award winning assessment platform, Surpass. Surpass is considered to be one of the best solutions available and has been used internationally to create, deliver and mark over 20 million computer based tests to date. BTL’s success has been due to its innovative approach to technological development, its passion for significantly improving assessment for everyone, its creative core, and its refreshing approach to collaboration with partners and Surpass Community members.
