We have just returned from another very successful E-ATP conference, which was held this year in Dublin. The theme of the conference was “Gaining Advantage through Assessment”. The three days were packed with many very interesting and thought-provoking presentations, including three excellent keynotes.
The opening keynote with Dr. Robert Hogan, President of Hogan Assessment Systems, was provocative, educational and energising. It was a great opening presentation on the impact that personality has on our reputation vs. our identity. He also discussed how personality assessment provides essential information about performance potential and that well constructed personality measures predict performance better than IQ. The discussion about this topic continued throughout the conference.
The next keynote was by Dr. Michal Kosinski, Assistant Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Michal gave us an unorthodox view on how Facebook data and digital footprints are used in business generally and in psychometric assessments. Michal’s presentation discussed how analysing an individual’s digital footprint in order to better judge their personality is something which could have a huge effect for the better in terms of personnel selection and job ‘fit’.
The very interesting closing keynote with Simon Nelson, Chief Executive of FutureLearn, took us through the Internet era and how it has revolutionised higher education and workplace learning. We heard about the way that universities are embracing digital technologies and delivery platforms to disseminate knowledge and learning for the good of all, whilst also providing a valuable way of enrolling new paying students who may not have otherwise considered study in a particular field.
It also covered the practical aspects and challenges of delivering high-volume, massive, open, online courses (MOOCs) across multiple devices, locations and nations.
Hackathon
As part of the conference, E-ATP again included a Hackathon. There were six, very enthusiastic and dedicated teams, each with 4-5 team members. Our President and CEO, Sue Orchard, was proud to be part of Team Yellow, along with Bill West from Pearson, Jarrod Morgan from ProctorU (our Ace presenter), Mark Molenaar from Cito and Tim Winfield from Calibrand.
We were given an overall topic and then each team was challenged to come up with an idea for a new certification programme, incorporating Big Data. The use of innovation was key.
The National Health Service in the UK loses approx. £2.5 billion each year due to errors. Our idea was to produce mini accreditations to be taken 3-4 steps before such errors occur. Our aim was to identify the behaviours well in advance of them happening in order to save a huge amount in lives and costs.
We had to produce a business plan, showing the target market, key players, key resources required, how we would gather data, marketing and branding, the financial side, time frame, delivery channel/platform etc. All of this within a couple of hours!
Our idea obviously resonated with the judges and with the other teams and Team Yellow ran out as clear winners. Here are the team members getting their winners’ prizes at the E-ATP closing ceremony:
