This innovative advanced course in Item Writing for language tests has been created to facilitate the needs of those item writers who need a more in-depth knowledge and solutions. 

The course also tackles the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Item Writing and will demonstrate how AI can be used in the process. 

The course will be divided into two parts: Advanced Item Writing sessions, and elements of Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing. 

In the Item Writing part, you’ll look at the interplay between the language skills in assessment: reading, speaking, listening, and writing.  You’ll discuss choice of task type in relation to CEFR descriptors, in particular, communicative language competency descriptors.  Producing assessment criteria for speaking and writing as well as developing Test specifications and Item Writer Guidelines will also be covered.

For many organizations Language Test Item Writing has also become a digital process, with the use of digital resources, tools, and online applications. In the Advanced Elements of Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing sessions you will discuss the digital side of Item Writing: item types, configuring automatic or human correction, scores, using metadata, using on-the-fly test generation… 

You will also discuss questions such as:  

• How can AI help to generate materials for a test? 

• Can AI help to define the (CEFR) level of a question? 

• Can AI (help to) generate full items? 

• Should item writers think about automatic correction or grading when designing the items?

The course is divided into two parts across four full days and two half days.  Please see below how the course is structured, so you can plan your calendar accordingly. 

PART 1:    

Day 1: 28 October (Monday), 10 am* – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing: Communicative language competences and testing   

Day 2: 29 October (Tuesday), 10 am – 1 pm (half a day) – Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing 

Day 3: 30 October (Wednesday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing: Communicative language competences and testing    – cont. 

PART 2:

Day 1: 13 November (Wednesday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing : Productive skills and assessment criteria

Day 2: 14 November (Thursday), 10 am – 1 pm (half a day) – Artificial Intelligence in Item Writing 

Day 3: 15 November (Friday), 10 am – 1 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm – Advanced Item Writing  Productive skills and assessment criteria – cont.   Developing test Specifications and Item Writer Guidelines.

*All times are in the CET zone. 

Although ALTE created the course mainly for those who have participated in the ALTE Item Writing Basic course, the course is open to anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of Item Writing. 

Please note that it is possible to join part 1 or part 2 of this course only. 
However,  we encourage you to participate in both parts as this will be more beneficial, both for you, the tutors and other participants, so the same group can be maintained.  If you would like to join only one part of this course, please contact servicesunit@alte.org .

CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE

ALTE will issue a digital certificate of attendance for those who participated in at least 80% of the teaching hours (for the parts of the course they chose when signing up). 

The tutors are: Annie Broadhead and Bert Wylin, two world-class consultants to deliver this unique and state-of-art course. 

Annie Broadhead is an Assessment consultant, ESOL teacher trainer, test developer and ELT author based in Cambridge, UK. Annie has run online courses in the Principles of Testing and ALTE Item Writer courses in several countries. Annie has delivered various courses for ALTE across the years, such as ALTE Item Writing Course - Getting to know the basics; 

Bert Wylin has both an academic and a business profile. He has worked at the KU Leuven since 1993, leading the Education Innovation Centre (integrating EdTech in education). In 2001, he founded a KU Leuven university spin-off, now Televic Education, developing and servicing an e-assessment platform. Bert has delivered various courses for ALTE such as Developing Digital Assessments and Developing Digital Testing with Artificial Intelligence.  

Payment and Cancellation policy

Payment is in full when registering. Payment can only be made online using a Visa, MasterCard or American Express. 

In case of cancellation up until one month before the start of the events, the full amount will be refunded minus a €50 administration fee. However, in the case of cancellation after this date, no refunds can be made.  

Use of Personal Data Disclaimer

I agree that by clicking 'Register', the personal data I include in the registration form may be used and held by ALTE staff and third parties, only for the purposes related to the organisation of the ALTE Item Writing - Getting to know the basics course.

ALTE's 61^st Meeting and Conference will be hosted by Yunus Emre Institute, and it will take place in Istanbul, Türkiye, from 6^th - 8^th November 2024.

The conference will be organised mainly as a face to face event and will include workshops, plenary presentations and also the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to which Members (Full Members/Associate Members and Individual Expert Members) are encouraged to attend.

Friday 8^th November 2024 will be an open conference day for all those with an interest in the field of language testing. The theme of the conference day is:  The Transformative Power of EDI in Language Assessment. 

The events during the conference day will be live streamed and video recorded, except for the workshops in the afternoon.

Contributions to the host organisers of the event (Yunus Emre Institute) should be paid by each representative from ALTE Members/Associate Members/Individual Expert Members, as follows:

• €50 for in-person attendance;
• *€15 for online attendance

Detailed information on how to send the payment to the host organisation can be found at page 3 of the practical information document. 

PROGRAMME

For more information about the practical arrangements of the event, please click on the practical information document. 

The registration for this event is now closed.

*Online attendance has been arranged for the ALTE Annual General meeting (AGM), the MLTDE working group, on Thursday 7^th November, and for the plenary sessions of the ALTE Conference Day, Friday 8^th November. Please note, the workshops on Friday afternoon will not be live streamed or video recorded.

Cancellation policy: If you are not attending the event anymore, please inform the ALTE Secretariat as soon as possible. Refunds for the €50 contribution are possible, but the €15 contribution is non-refundable. Refunds may take 2 to 3 months to process, and bank charges may apply.

The ALTE 61^st Conference Day will take place on Friday 8^th November 2024, Istanbul, Türkiye, hosted by our ALTE Member, Yunus Emre Institute.

 Friday 8^th November 2024 will be an open conference day for all those with an interest in the field of language testing. The theme of the conference day is: The Transformative Power of EDI in Language Assessment.

The sessions during the conference day will be live streamed and video recorded, except for the workshops in the afternoon. 

The registration fee to attend this event for Non-Members is:

• €50 for in-person attendance;
• €15 for online attendance.

Detailed information on how to send the payment to the host organisation can be found at page 3 of the practical information document. 

PROGRAMME

For more information about the practical arrangements of the event, please click on the practical information document. 

The registration for this event is now closed.

Cancellation policy: If you are not attending the event anymore, please inform the ALTE Secretariat as soon as possible.  Refunds for the €50 contribution are possible, but the €15 contribution is non-refundable. Refunds may take 2 to 3 months to process, and bank charges may apply.

The ALTE course in Developing Digital Assessments is aimed at everyone who would like to learn how to move from paper-based tests to digital tests.
In this 2-day online workshop, ALTE will guide you through the different steps of the transition to digital language testing. From the authoring process over the balanced composition of tests, user management and planning to the actual computer-based administration and processing of results and reports. In four sessions of 3 hours each, the basic concepts of digital language testing, including machine learning, large language models (LLM) and AI, are introduced and applied to your concrete situation and needs. The workshop format is specifically designed to ensure that you seek applications for your own use case.

About the course tutor:

Bert Wylin has both an academic and a business profile. He has been working at the KU Leuven since 1993, leading the Education Innovation Centre (integrating EdTech in education). In 2001, he founded a KU Leuven university spin-off, now Televic Education, developing and servicing an e-assessment platform. Today, Bert is interested in how technology serves the didactic and pedagogical needs of content and skills measurement. 

Payment and Cancellation policy

For group bookings, ALTE advises to book maximum three places per institution.  If you would like more people to attend from your institution, please contact: servicesunit@alte.org .
   
Payment is in full when registering. Payment can only be made online using a Visa, MasterCard or American Express. 

If you cannot pay with a credit/debit card please contact the ALTE Services Unit: servicesunit@alte.org. In such a case we issue an invoice first, and only then a bank transfer will be possible.
In case of cancellation up until one month before the start of the events, the full amount will be refunded minus a €50 administration fee. However, in the case of cancellation after this date, no refunds can be made.  

Use of Personal Data Disclaimer

I agree that by clicking 'Register', the personal data I include in the registration form may be used and held by ALTE staff and third parties, only for the purposes related to the organisation of the ALTE course in Developing Digital Assessments.

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Please note that ALTE will never ask you to pay via a third party website.
Please avoid clicking on any links that direct you to a payment website other than WildApricot.

ALTE's 62^nd Meeting and Conference will be hosted by CBAC WJEC and it will take place in Cardiff, United Kingdom, from 2^nd - 4^th April 2025.

The first 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) of the event are open only to representatives of ALTE Full Members/Associate Members and Individual Expert Members.

Friday 4^th April 2025 will be an open conference day for all those with an interest in the field of language testing. 

More information about this event will be available in due course. 

ALTE's 63^rd Meeting and Conference will be hosted by The Foreign Language Centre at the University of Pécs and it will take place in Pécs, Hungary, from 5^th  - 7^th November 2025.

The first 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) of the event are open only to representatives of ALTE Full Members/Associate Members and Individual Expert Members.

Friday 7^th November 2025 will be an open conference day for all those with an interest in the field of language testing. 

More information about this event will be available in due course.