ATP's Global Conference has Gone virtual for 2020! Our break out session with The Italian Ministry of Education focuses on how Italy is responding to the loss of learning due to COVID-19.

Access the session here: https://www.gotomeet.me/TAOTesting

On March 1, 2020 Italy became the first European country to enter a nationwide school lock-down, which lasted through the end of the school year. The limited data that exists seems to indicate that even though many students had the opportunity to follow class remotely, many are believed to have disengaged and dropped out of the learning cycle altogether. Education leaders suspect this Learning Loss to be huge, vastly increasing the number of students at risk.

In this session we will share with you how Ministry of Education officials in Italy are responding to the massive learning disruption caused by COVID-19. Hear from Marc Oswald, Founder and CEO at TAO, and Roberto Ricci Director of Research and National Examinations” at INVALSI. Following the presentation we will have an open discussion with the audience to discuss strategies for how to best tackle the COVID-19 Learning Loss.

Key Takeaways:

• How has Italy jumped into action in response to the COVID crisis?
• How are education leaders able to ensure the validity of their assessments when the education model is disrupted?
• How is Italy addressing students that may have fallen behind in the wake of this disruption?
• Q&A

Meet our Speakers:

Roberto Ricci | Director of Research and National Examinations | INVALSI

Roberto Ricci is the director of research at INVALSI (National Institute for School Evaluation in Italy). After a PhD in statistical methodology for measurement in education and psychometrics, he has been involved in educational measurement for over 25 years. He has carried out research activities in educational measurement both in Italy and in several European countries. He is member of the GA of IEA and PGB since 2012. In 2017 he was co-founder of the international collaboration group FLIP+ that aims to promote e-assessment at different levels. In particular, starting from 2015 it has coordinated the INVALSI research group for the implementation at national level of standardized computer tests (over 2,000,000 tests per year).

Furthermore, in recent years he is part of national research groups to study the applications of AI in education and for the application of learning analytics in educational measurement. As a result of the effects of the pandemic, he is conducting a group at national level for the implementation of online tests for the formative evaluation and for the measurement and reduction of learning loss that has occurred as a result of the lock down that closed schools for several months. He is a member of the board of several national education journals and acts as a trainer for teachers and stakeholders both at national and international level. He is author of more than 50 scientific articles and often writes in informative press on the issues of evaluation and equity in education.

Marc Oswald | Founder and CEO | Open Assessment Technologies

Marc Oswald is Co-Founder & CEO of Open Assessment Technologies S.A., a Luxembourg software company and Education Technology leader, which he launched in 2013. Through his visionary leadership, the company quickly established itself as the de facto market leader for open and innovative assessment solutions with an impressive customer list spanning Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Marc is also a vocal proponent of interoperability through industry standards, serving as the first chairman of the IMS Global Executive Board on Assessment, which he initiated in 2015 with the goal to significantly improve interoperability of assessment content and to reduce total cost of ownership for institutional assessment providers around the globe. Prior to IMS Global, Marc served on the boards of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) from which he received a lifetime achievement award for his work on solutions interoperability.