2024-01-05
by Pisana Ferrari

“cApStAn at a scale”, Jan Denys, CEO, and Steve Dept, Founding Partner

No comparative surveys without comparable data Twenty-four years ago, cApStAn started developing, testing, fine-tuning and implementing methods to ensure comparability between different language versions of tests and questionnaires. That was our core activity and it still is. Tests and questionnaires are measurement instruments. They measure knowledge, skills, attitudes, trends, or opinions. They link data points …

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2023-11-01
by Pisana Ferrari

“Navigating the Frontiers of DEI and AI: Insights from cApStAn’s 2023 I.C.E. Exchange Experience”

One of cApStAn’s teams is just back from Colorado Springs, USA, where they attended the 2023 Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.) Exchange. Devasmita Ghosh (Business Development and Marketing Lead), Nela Manojlovic (Project Manager) and Founding Partner Steve Dept spent a full week there. One needs to begin with the venue. The Broadmoor is a mythical …

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2023-10-09
by Pisana Ferrari

I.C.E. Exchange coming up soon! Visit us at booth #229

If you are attending the I.C.E. Exchange 2023 in Colorado Springs, USA, we shall be delighted to welcome you at our booth (# 229) for a chat with cApStAn Founding Partner and Head of Strategic Partnerships Steve Dept, Business Development and Marketing Lead Devasmita Ghosh, and Project Manager Nela Manojlovic. For over two decades, cApStAn has been involved in translation …

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2023-10-02
by Pisana Ferrari

“AI and DEI Take Centre Stage at E-ATP 2023: Insights from cApStAn LQC”

This year the E-ATP 2023 Annual Conference was held in Vienna from September 20 to 22. At cApStAn, we have never missed the E-ATP conferences since 2015 in Dublin, and we are very proud to be one of the Silver Sponsors of this year’s edition. We were represented in Vienna by Founding Partner and Head …

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2023-07-31
by Pisana Ferrari

AI in Test Localisation: Augment, Replace, or Preserve Humans? Steve Dept at E-ATP 2023 Conference in Vienna, September 20

The 2023 edition of the European Chapter of the Association of Test Publishers (E-ATP) annual conference is taking place in Vienna, Austria, on September 20-22. We at cApStAn are delighted that our Founding Partner Steve Dept has been invited to present during one of the sessions on September 20 at 14:15. His presentation is titled …

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2023-06-24
by Pisana Ferrari

Reflections from the e-Assessment Association (eAA) Conference: Insights, Connections, and New Perspectives

The 2023 edition of the e-Assessment Association Conference, which took place in London, June 6-7, offered valuable insights, connections, and fresh perspectives to industry professionals, encouraging collaboration and knowledge exchange. It covered a broad range of topics, including language bias in AI and inclusive assessment practices, exam security enhancements, innovative test design, guidelines for validity …

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2023-03-08
by Pisana Ferrari

Human player defeats AI at the board game Go by finding and exploiting a weakness in the system

In a series of matches held in February 2023 Kellin Pelrine, an American research scientist intern at FAR AI, defeated an AI system at the board game Go. The win by Pelrine was a surprise reversal of the 2016 computer victory by “AlphaGo” against world champion Lee Sedol. AlphaGo was the first computer program to defeat …

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2023-03-07
by Pisana Ferrari

Disruptive potential of ChatGPT: should we ban it, reinstate oral exams, return to pen and paper, or embrace it?

ChatGPT is the new AI tool trained by OpenAI that everybody is talking about. ChatGPT works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions and has mind boggling encyclopaedic knowledge. It has allegedly passed the very complex the US medical licensing exam (USMLE), say researchers in the USA who have put …

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2023-02-02
by Pisana Ferrari

Open AI’s ChatGPT may result in educators having to rethink tests and assessments 

Everyone is confronted with the breakthrough of (and the hype around) ChatGPT, a new AI tool trained by OpenAI launched at the end of last year. ChatGPT works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions. Open AI says the dialogue format “makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer questions, admit its …

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2023-01-31
by Pisana Ferrari

The translator of the future is a human-machine hybrid

The translator of the future is a human-machine hybrid The gist of a recent article in The Economist is precisely what we at cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control have been applying for years by looking at “augmented translator models” and man-machine interaction in translation environments. We believe that finding the right combination of automation and human intervention is the way forward. …

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2022-12-28
by Pisana Ferrari

Is visual media replacing text as our culture’s dominant form of expression? Pictures’ capacity to convey “a thousand words” is a palpable advantage

Meghan O’Gieblyn is an award-winning author and “spiritual advice columnist” at Wired. In a recent article she reassures us that visual media is not (yet) replacing text as our main form of expression but that do we need to be aware that our relationship to language is changing. On the one hand the artificial intelligence …

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2022-10-06
by Pisana Ferrari

Latest “IEA Insider” now out featuring article by cApStAn LQC co-founder Steve Dept

The latest edition of the International Education Association (IEA)’s newsletter, the IEA Insider, is just out! It is released annually at their General Assembly and this issue features an article by cApStAn founder Steve Dept. In the article Steve talks about cApStAn’s experience with machine translation (MT) and (human) post-editing, and reflects on the role …

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