Category Archives: cApStAn updates

The European arm of the Association of Test Publishers (E-ATP) held its annual conference in Dublin this year. The venue was ideal, the turnout was better than in 2024, though the proportion of vendors, and the content was definitely engaging. One takeaway for the cApStAn team was that the assessment localisation challenge has shifted towards …

“E-ATP25 Conference, Dublin | Building European Assessment for All”

We are thrilled to announce that funding has officially been secured for the Bank for International Survey Answer Scales (BISAS), a groundbreaking initiative born from a collaborative effort between GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Germany and cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control. This achievement is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the …

“BISAS: A Milestone for Multilingual Survey Research”

We’re thrilled to share that cApStAn’s founder Steve Dept was invited to speak at Google’s internal Survey Conference last week, where he shared insights on the latest trends and best practices in survey translations. Abstract from the session: The blueprint for high-quality questionnaire translations using sophisticated workflows was developed at a time when data collection …

“Survey Translation in 2025: is expertise still needed with today’s toolkit?”

Speakers: AI is an umbrella term. AI includes ML, auto-complete, GenAI, NMT, predictive AI. 1. What AI-powered tools are relevant/suitable for translation, localization? – By professionals (closed LLM API, licensed MT, AIQE) • Combining language assets and automated translation • Risk management – By laypersons (public MT providers, LLMs) • Limitations and risks 2. What …

“On-Demand Webinar | Different Types of AI and their Role in Test and Survey Localization”

The first European Conference of the Association of Test Publishers (E-ATP) at which cApStAn was present was set in Dublin, ten years ago, in 2015. Our founder Steve Dept recalls that his arrival in Dublin (during the Rugby World Cup) coincided with a surprise victory of the Japanese rugby team over the South African Springboks. …

“cApStAn Team at the E-ATP Conference in Dublin”

By: Steve Dept, Founder – cApStAn Despite an erratic Eurostar service on July 14th, arriving in Utrecht Central Station on a summer afternoon puts one’s mind to rest: the students know how to chill in troves, sipping drinks on terraces or on flat barges that ease along the water, cruising the streets on bicycles – not …

“ESRA 2025 Conference Update | The Evolving Landscape of Survey Methodology”

While cApStAn’s founder Steve Dept is more of a field practitioner than a researcher, he has collected a wealth of empirical data in his work on survey questionnaires. He has learned a lot from sharing the data with researchers and academics, as they identified patterns and contributed to the conceptual frameworks that underpin cApStAn’s work. …

“ESRA 2025 Conference | cApStAn | Utrecht, The Netherlands | 14th July to 18th July”

Translation and localisation has traditionally been a cost centre, and the work performed by professional translators was mostly paid by word, by line, by page. Today, this model has become meaningless: translating half a million words or generating 100 pages directly in a foreign language can be done faster and cheaper than crafting two or three …

“Leveraging Translation Technology with Discernment | The Keys to Smart Localisation unveils on August 27, 2025”

If you are attending the 2025 eAA conference in London, United Kingdom, we shall be delighted to have you in attendance at the session where cApStAn’s Founding Partner Steve Dept (he/him/his) will talk and explain about the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence in producing multiple language versions of assessment items. Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is …

“The 2025 International e-Assessment Awards | cApStAn | London, UK | June 9th – 11th”

Why would an assessment localization specialist spend 4 days with 4,000+ Industrial/organisational psychologists and be a Bronze-level Partner at their conference? Of course, we thought we had it all figured out when a cApStAn team of three flew out to Denver: Devasmita Ghosh, Grace DeLee and I looked forward to meeting the people who develop those …

“cApStAn at the 40th Annual SIOP Conference | April 2-5, 2025, Denver, Colorado, USA”

Three weeks ago, we flew to Florida. “We” could refer to well over a thousand professionals from the testing industry, who converged in Orlando, Florida from March 23 to March 26. The first-person plural conveys a sense of community and of belonging. At a smaller scale, “we” refers to my fabulous colleagues, Devasmita Ghosh and …

“Post-Conference Review | ATP Innovations in Testing Conference | cApStAn | Florida, USA”

If you are attending the 2025 Society for Industrial and Organization Psychology (SIOP) annual conference in Denver, Colorado, we shall be delighted to welcome you at our booth (#216) for a chat with cApStAn’s Founding Partner Steve Dept (he/him/his), Global Business Development and Marketing Lead Devasmita Ghosh, and Localization Specialist Grace DeLee. At our booth, we’ll showcase the range …

“cApStAn at SIOP Annual Conference 2025 | Denver, Colorado, USA | Booth & Session”