NIMA has been working with Remindo for more than sixteen years. What began as the move from paper to digital exams grew into a way of examining in which flexibility, efficient marking and continuous quality improvement come together. The next step? Making assessment fit even more closely with a labour market in which skills and lifelong learning are becoming increasingly important.
Baukje Hilarides, Exam Manager at NIMA, tells us more about making exams more flexible.
The challenge: organising exams in a more accessible and flexible way
Since 1966, NIMA has been the professional association for professionals in marketing, communication and sales. As an independent examination organisation, NIMA administers exams at different levels and within different disciplines. The exam is separate from the training provider: this way, it is established independently whether a candidate meets the applicable exam requirements.
Until 2010, NIMA’s written exams were taken on paper, at a limited number of fixed moments each year at the Jaarbeurs exhibition centre in Utrecht. That fitted less and less with the need of candidates and training providers for flexibility.
Digitalisation was therefore a logical next step.
“We wanted our exams to align more closely with the practice of our customers. Digital examining made it possible to offer candidates much more flexibility.”
NIMA chose Remindo as its digital assessment and exam platform. Written exams are now offered digitally at exam locations of choice, and various exams can be scheduled daily, depending on availability. Today, NIMA administers around 1,500 exams a year at 18 exam locations.
The solution: more than taking an exam digitally
The move to digital examining did not only change the way candidates take their exam. Behind the scenes, the exam process changed as well.
An important advantage is digital marking. In Remindo, markers can be linked directly to the right exams and assess the work within the system. This made the marking process faster and clearer. A marking round used to take four to six weeks, with paper exams sent by post or scanned. Today it takes one to two weeks.
Where candidates used to wait roughly a month to a month and a half for their result, that period has been reduced to two weeks. For multiple-choice exams, a result could technically even be shown immediately. NIMA deliberately chooses not to do so. Speed is important, but care weighs more heavily.
Before results are published, NIMA analyses the national scores. This analysis takes place twice a month. This allows NIMA to check first whether the results and individual exam questions give reason for further investigation.
“For us, digitalisation does not mean showing a grade as quickly as possible. It means using technology to organise the exam process better and more carefully.”
From examining to continuous improvement
For NIMA, an important advantage of digital assessment lies in the data it produces.
Through learning analytics, exam questions can be monitored structurally. When results deviate, NIMA can flag this and investigate it. In this way, the system supports not only the administration of exams, but also their development and quality assurance.
This fits with NIMA’s role as an independent examination organisation. The exam requirements determine what candidates need to know and be able to do, and the NIMA Examination Board has final responsibility for the content and quality of the exams.
Data is not a goal in itself here. It helps to make better-founded decisions about the quality of exams and exam questions.
The result: flexible for candidates, more control for NIMA
After more than sixteen years, digital examining at NIMA is no longer an innovation project, but part of everyday exam practice.
For candidates, it is above all the flexibility that is visible. Many written exams can be taken digitally every day, with the candidate choosing an exam location based on availability.
For the examination organisation, the gain also lies in a more efficient and more manageable process. Markers can be deployed digitally, assessments are completed faster and exam data provides information with which the quality of tests can be monitored structurally.
That suits an organisation that wants not only to run exams efficiently, but above all to keep them reliable.
“In the end, an exam has to demonstrate what someone actually knows and can do. Digitalisation helps us to organise that process flexibly, without making concessions on care.”
The future: skills carry more weight
The development of assessment does not stop at digitalisation.
The labour market is changing, and with it the question of what professionals need to know and be able to do. For NIMA, this means that examining must continue to align with developments around lifelong learning and the growing attention to professional skills.
Should the current assessment platform ever no longer be available, NIMA would look for a system and form of assessment that fit the way professionals develop and are able to demonstrate their professional competence.
Technology plays a supporting role in this. The quality and relevance of assessment remain the guiding principle.
Sixteen years of working together and continuing to develop
The collaboration between NIMA and Remindo shows that digitalising exams goes much further than replacing paper with a screen.
It has given NIMA the opportunity to offer exams more flexibly, organise marking more efficiently and use data structurally for quality assurance. At the same time, there remains room to look critically at what can be improved and which forms of assessment will be needed in the future.
Because in the end, examining is not about the system in which a candidate gives an answer. It is about whether you can establish, in a reliable and independent way, what a professional knows and can do.
And it is precisely in this that NIMA and Remindo continue to develop together.
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