Covid 19, school closures and the uptake of a digital assessment for learning pilot project during Ireland’s national lockdown

Abstract

DALDIS is a three-year EU-funded Erasmus+ Project on Digital Assessment for Learning (2019–2022) involving five European countries. DALDIS is pilot testing a digital assessment for learning solution focused on Science and Modern Foreign Language Learning in years 5–9. Underpinned by the Study Quest technology, which is designed to drive students’ learning progression using well-designed question-sets and student feedback, DALDIS is built on the principle that formative assessment is one of the best methods to encourage student achievement. Although Assessment for Learning (AFL) using technology has great potential for learning, it is not widely used in Europe. As the project lead Ireland was responsible for the first adaptation of StudyQuest, known as JCQuest for its Junior Cycle science and French curriculum. Unexpectedly, the commencement of DALDIS coincided with school closures due to Covid-19 and this appears to have influenced the uptake in student usage of JCQuest to support online learning and exam preparation. This paper provides an insight into how students engaged with JCQuest, key usage patterns and types of devices used based on Google Analytics data during two crucial school closure periods during Ireland’s pandemic.