Investigating students’ experiences of piloting Stride

Abstract

Stride is AQA’s new adaptive assessment, providing diagnostic tests to help students prepare for GCSE Maths.

The objective of this study was to gather feedback from students about their experiences of trialling Stride’s diagnostic tests during the product’s development phases. The mixed-methods research featured focus groups and surveys with students who took part in the testing periods. This study accompanied quantitative research that explored the validity and reliability of the tests.

Focus groups and surveys were designed to gather feedback about student levels of engagement, their experience of how the adaptive engine tailored items to their proficiency levels, and their thoughts about how useful the results from the diagnostic tests would be for their learning and revision.

Findings from this study show that the majority of students:

• found taking part in the tests to be a positive experience
• confirmed that tests and their results would help them focus their revision
• thought that the tests were engaging and appropriately challenging due to the way the tests adapted to their proficiency levels.

Keywords

• e-Assessment
• On-screen tests
• Question difficulty
• Student voice
• Teachers