Category Archives: Tests and Assessments

A translatability assessment (TA) is a tried and tested method to optimize the master version of your assessment or survey questionnaire before the actual translation and adaptation process begins. In many multilingual tests or surveys—not only PISA or PIAAC or Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project—the TA has become an important design step. The TA process increases …

“On-Demand Webinar |Translatability Assessment”

Pros and cons of back translation in assessments and surveys A webinar by Andrea FERRARI and Steve DEPT, the founders of cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control. In 45 minutes, they will tell you everything you always wanted to know about back translation but never dared to ask such as: Telling examples from international studies – for which Andrea and Steve were commissioned …

“On-Demand Webinar| Pros and cons of back translation in assessments and surveys”

Psychometric assessments have become a crucial component of the recruitment and development process at scale. To hire the right candidate, one needs to ensure that the tests are fair, valid, reliable and defensible in all the languages that are available to the test takers. Different types of assessments present different challenges, and we shall show …

“On-Demand Webinar | Pitfalls to Avoid while Translating Psychometric Assessments”

The State Inspectorate for Supervision of Quality in Education (SISQE), Uzbekistan in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Education, National Center for International Studies on the Assessments of Quality in Education, OECD, UNICEF, World Bank, UNESCO are organizing a in-person/virtual hybrid conference on 11-12 April, 2022 to launch and commemorate Uzbekistan’s participation in PISA 2022 …

“PISA launch event in Uzbekistan | Translation of PISA Assessments – the Gold Standard within reach of National Centers”

You need to deploy a test or questionnaire in multiple countries and languages? The reliable validation of translated data collection instruments requires­—among other things—a robust QA design. A design that focuses on equivalence, comparability as well as appropriateness in each target culture. Based on +20 years of experience as LQA practitioners, Steve and Andrea profess …

“On-Demand Webinar – Tests, Assessments and Surveys: Item-by-item translation and adaptation notes”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO In the first two decades of this century, many test providers have migrated from pencil-and-paper assessments to computer-based assessments and this has driven a surge in sophisticated testing platforms. In some of these computer-based assessments environments, however, scant attention was given to multilingual testing. What many stakeholders do not seem …

“How to avoid the hidden threats to translation quality in computer-based assessments”

Computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools) have been around for 30 years, and they are designed as productivity tools for professional translators. Using CAT tools effectively increases quality, consistency and productivity at scale. Term bases, style guides and translation memories form a powerful combination that (still) give the human translator a competitive edge in terms of quality/price …

“On-Demand Webinar | How to leverage CAT tools to achieve more savings than MT”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Cultures and societies are dynamic and so is awareness of social justice issues. Recent global movements such as #metoo and #blm have shone a light on many of the inequities in the world and highlighted the need to work towards a more inclusive society. Awareness …

“Why you should include DEI-BR filters in your multilingual tests, assessments and surveys — and how cApStAn can support you”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Recent social justice movements across the world have raised awareness, on an unprecented level, of the inequities in our society, and have set off a global cultural debate around the themes of diversity, equity and inclusion and bias reduction (DEI-BR). During one of the sessions …

“Why diversity, equity and inclusion and bias reduction are important in credentialling: a report from the ICE 2021 conference”

by Steve Dept, cApStAn CEO By now, readers of this informative series on good practice in test translation are aware that the Chaos Management Skills Assessment is a fictitious project, which we set up for the exclusive purpose of the series. The purpose is to illustrate the complexity of test translation and the added value …

“The Chaos Management Skills Assessment Series: A Test Translation Case Study Episode 2 – Translatability Assessment and item-by-item Translation and Adaptation Notes”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Socioeconomic status (SES) is a variable that the vast majority of the international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) on student achievement derive from questions about parental occupation, parent’s level of education and their income bracket (or proxy indicators of household income). The student SES information is often …

“A new and more equitable approach to measuring socioeconomic status in international large-scale assessments on student achievement”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Open Bar – Live Q&A – Thursday, October 28, 2021 Our first in the series of cApStAn Open Bar – Live Q&A webinars took place on October 28. Our new format: a very short PowerPoint – with five slides sent to participants in advance– and …

“Everything you want (and need) to know about producing and validating tests and questionnaires in multiple languages”