Ensuring your learners access the flexibilities they deserve can be expensive, time consuming, and the risks of non-compliance are everywhere.
Cognassist Cognitive Differences Assessment integrates seamlessly with your workflow to help:
The Cognassist speed of working report identifies learners who are eligible for extra time and is widely accepted as evidence by awarding bodies.
Our assessment is JCQ compliant and recognised by the majority of Awarding Organisations and end-point assessment organisations in the UK, and beyond.
For regulated examinations it is critical that speed of working is measured in two different contexts.
The Cognassist digital cognitive assessment includes two tasks that specifically measure speed of processing – one with a verbal focus (Reading Decoding), and one with visual processing demands (Visual Information Processing Speed).
Learner results on these tasks are used in two unique and required ways to robustly identify a need for time-based adjustments at assessment.
In order to have fair and equitable assessments it’s important that both measures are calculated and understood. As an example, quite often learners with Dyslexia will not show up with a general speed of working difficulty, but are flagged for specific speed of working difficulties.
Extra time in exams is often provided as an accommodation for individuals with certain disabilities or conditions that affect their ability to complete exams within the standard time frame. It aims to level the playing field and ensure that these individuals have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
Around 15% of the population have weaker speed of working than other cognitive processing abilities. This doesn’t usually impact intelligence, but it can limit the performance of other cognitive processing in artificial environments; such as timed exams. The best way educational phycologists have found to counter this effect is to enable flexibilities for additional time to be awarded.
In exams that involve complex problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, extra time for those who need it enables individuals to thoroughly explore and demonstrate their understanding of the material. Without this flexibility their processing speed can dampen their cognitive retrieval and processing of learned knowledge putting them at a disadvantage to their peers during a critical time.
Navigating the process of requesting extra time for your learners is made easier with Cognassist. The Speed of Working report can be used to identify your learners who could benefit from extra time.
This evidence can be presented to Awarding Organisations, of which many have pre-approved Cognassist already, to support your claim.
For more detail on time-based adjustments and how Cognassist supports learners, read our guide.
Every country has legislation that protects individuals with learning differences form being discriminated at high stakes exams. In Europe it is the Equality Act, in the US it’s the Americans with Disabilities Act and in Australia it’s the Disability Discrimination Act. Cognassist cost effectively identifies and evidences cognitive learning difficulties that can be defined as having a ‘substantial and long-term adverse effect; for the individual, which is the threshold for most nations disability definitions.
By including Cognassist into learner workflows your organisation is taking proactive steps to early identification and support of your legal responsibilities.
Yes, Cognassist is one of only a very few digital assessments that can be used for Form 8. It is important to note that to be JCQ eligible an appropriately qualified practitioner must be present when the user completes the assessment.
It depends on which authority is regulating your qualification.
These insights enabled personalised learning strategies, improving learner outcomes and tutor efficiency.
Stephanie Taylor
Learning Support, Safeguarding and Inclusion Manager, Hawk Training