Performance-based testing ensures employees can apply knowledge to real-world scenarios
Elly Yates-Roberts |
In the next five years, the demand for IT talent will significantly outstrip supply. For agile skills, the demand is expected to be four times the supply. For big-data talent, it is projected to be 50 to 60% greater than anticipated supply.
This will require IT organisations to look at new organisational models and approaches to skills development. To address skill gaps, IT organisations need to re-examine the traditional lecture/lab/test approach and adopt new instructional design models like performance-based testing.
Performance-based testing replaces traditional tests with real-word tasks performed in live environments. This is crucial to ensuring that technical professionals’ training translates directly to the ability to perform actual tasks and solve real problems.
Whereas traditional learning assessments discover what a person knows, performance-based assessments find out how well they can you use what they know. Knowing something is great, but putting it to use and proving you can accomplish a task in a virtualised environment means you can actually do what you set out to do.
Learn on Demand Systems is helping firms to deliver performance-based testing. Clients can build assessments on our platform to incorporate into their learning solutions, or we can create the assessments for them.
Performance-based assessments can range in complexity level from a simple response, such as a short answer, to a scenario where they need to provide a sample solution. The scenario requires a higher-level of thinking because students must create or do something to achieve success. The most effective performance-based assessments are ones that closely mirror real world situations.
Our passion for performance-based assessments is reflected in our recent decision to become a cornerstone member of the Performance Testing Council, a non-profit consortium dedicated to innovation in performance-based testing. Learn on Demand Systems served as an organisational-level member of the council since May 2017. Cornerstone membership provides the highest level of sponsorship, recognition and benefits.
This move enables us to help members stay at the forefront of performance testing innovation and confirms our commitment to increasing the adoption of performance-based testing across the industry.
Corey Hynes is CEO at Learn on Demand Systems
This article was originally published in the Winter 2019 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issues delivered directly to your inbox.