All of the assessments at EdPlace are accompanied by the use of a timer. The timer's role within the assessment is to act as a guide to students and to provide more context for tutors and teachers. It is important to stress that the timer will not close down the assessment if the suggested duration is exceeded.
The timer is visible at the bottom of the toolbar, on the right-hand side of the student's work screen. It is viewable to students as they read through the introduction and shows the expected length of time of the total assessment. In the image below of the GCSE science assessment, you can see the timer shows 20 minutes in total:
Once the student begins the assessment, the timer will count down on the right-hand side of the screen and represent the time taken so far as a solid green block:
EdPlace timers are intentionally designed to be small and non-intrusive to students, so the information is there if they need it or will benefit from it, but it is not daunting or intimidating in any way.
Our timers are used to offer additional context to the overall raw score a student achieves. They are not there to catch students out or to stop the assessment if the timing is exceeded. For this reason, there is a reference to the timer within the assessment PDF report, but this is only a short sentence stating whether a student has completed the assessment within or outside the suggested duration:
At EdPlace, we believe that timing has an important role to play in assessment, especially in illustrating confidence, but that it should not be given too much weight and risk overshadowing the tracking of student achievement and understanding.
We hope this article is helpful but please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any further questions or need any support. To contact our friendly Customer Support Team, drop us an email at help@edplace.com.