2021 so far: Surpass Community news round-up

Introducing new community members, new partners, and fresh insights from the industry

It’s already been a busy start to the year for the Surpass Community. We’ve welcomed new customers and partners, had some exciting announcements from the Surpass team, and have been keeping everyone up to date with insightful stories from the industry with our series of webinars and podcasts, not to mention new Surpass features!

Continue reading or watch the video below for a summary of all the latest news. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for our fantastic community.

Welcoming two premier certifying organisations to the community

We’re delighted to have welcomed some new organisations to the Surpass Community over the last few months.

• The National Board for Certified Counselors is the premier credentialing body for counselors, ensuring those that become board certified have achieved the highest standard of practice through education, examination, supervision, experience and ethical guidelines. Read the press release for more information, and hear from NBCC themselves in this short interview:

• The Council for Interior Design Qualification is the premier certifying organisation for interior design professionals, developing and administering the three-part NCIDQ Examination – the gold standard for interior design professionals. Find out more by reading the press release, and hear Tim Burnett chat to Cornelia Springer, Exam Director at CIDQ in this video:

Expanding online proctoring services with Examity

Surpass is pleased to be partnering with Examity to expand online proctoring services available to the community. The partnership complements existing services, providing greater choice for certification bodies, including options for live remote proctoring with a 2:1 candidate to proctor ratio, AI based proctoring, and automated authentication processes. Discover what’s new for online proctoring in this article, or watch this clip for an introduction to the Examity service:

ATP and CNG Appointments for the Surpass Team

We are proud to share that members of the Surpass Team have taken on roles with organisations pivotal to the dissemination of knowledge across the assessment industry.

• Andy McAnulla, President of Surpass has been elected to the ATP Board of Directors, where he will represent the Europe-ATP Regional Division.

• Barry Porter, VP Account Management and Shannon Starrs, Account Director at Surpass have been appointed to the CNG Programme Planning Committee, and will be involved in planning the organisation’s networking activities as well as serving as ambassadors for new and existing members.

“It is a pleasure to be part of the CNG Programme Steering Committee in Chicago. Surpass is dedicated to improving testing in the credentialing space, so I look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from clients in this industry. I value the opportunity to grow professionally with this great organisation.”

Shannon Starrs, Account Director, Surpass

Industry Insights

Creating work-ready accountants with real-world testing: Insights from ICAS and CPA Canada

In a recent webinar, we got a fascinating insight from CPA Canada and ICAEW on the innovative ways they have minimised disruption caused by the pandemic on their examination schedules, and how Surpass can help provide a real-world testing experience. Hear about:

• Renting 10,000 hotels rooms for candidates to sit exams
• Utilising Surpass LOFT functionality to manage item exposure
• Testing real-world skills with Task-Based Simulations

Get an overview of the Task Based Simulations question type:

Introducing the brand new virtual SecureMarker training course

One successful Test Conversion project was with Surpass community member, Ascentis, who have recently launched an Essential Digital Skills qualification. Tim Burnett spoke to Ascentis to find out more:

Simon unveils the future of formative and continuous summative assessment

Simon share insights into how formative technology will change the assessment landscape with increased usage of formative and continuous summative assessment and how this can be achieved with Surpass.

How does font choice impact candidates with dyslexia?

New time-saving features exclusive to the Surpass Community

Catch up on everything new and exclusive to Surpass, including the ability to save search criteria when compiling item sets and viewing source material side-by-side when writing items.