Intelligent Assessment Technologies IAT has pioneered computerised assessment of free-text in the UK, working with many of the leading educational bodies in the UK, including :

SQA : IAT participated in both phases of the PASS-IT research project led by SQA, demonstrating the feasibility of automatically marking short-answer free-text questions in Higher Chemistry and Intermediate 1 English. IAT also act as consultants to SQA on eAssessment.

QCA : IAT carried out an investigation into free-text marking as part of the Key Stage 3 ICT Pilot. The output of this work has been included in the specification for the national test, currently under development.

DfES : IAT have contributed to the Convergence project, investigating the use of automatic marking of free-text in assessing literacy.

The BBC : IAT are part of a consortium developing eLearning to support second language learners as part of the digital curriculum. IAT's engine has been used in the development of activities which provide feedback on learner's free-text input.

IAT's latest development, FreeText Author, ensures that configuring the engine to mark new questions is simple. The technology also provides a unique mechanism for double checking human marking. In this 'human marks, computer checks' mode, computerised marking can be used to reduce marking errors in human marking of short or extended answer questions in a high stakes context.