ABSTRACT
Daldis is an innovative e-Assessment project funded under the EU Erasmus+ Programme. Involving schools in five countries, this three-year project (2019–2022) aimed to develop and pilot a digital assessment for learning solution based on StudyQuest technology. Targeting five- to nine-year-old students with a focus on Science and Modern Foreign Language learning, Daldis is built on the principle that formative assessment is one of the best methods to encourage student achievement. Ireland was the first country to beta test the StudyQuest solution for its Junior Cycle science curriculum in lower secondary school. As this occurred immediately prior to Covid-19, it provided an invaluable window through which patterns of online and offline activities in Irish schools during the peak pandemic years could be viewed. Furthermore, the recruitment of five schools to pilot the resource once schools fully re-opened post-pandemic allowed a more detailed analysis of the system’s formative assessment benefits to be captured. Using system-generated data analytics as well as teacher and student surveys, this chapter will discuss how teachers and students benefitted from Daldis. It will also discuss how barriers such as poor technology provision in schools and a deficit in teachers’ assessment skills affected implementation.
