Process data, automatically collected information on behaviours and actions within digital assessments, offer deep insights into students’ problem-solving and test-taking strategies. Given this potential, how can assessment organizations best leverage process data for multiple purposes? For example, how might this data inform understandings of student achievement? And how can process data be incorporated into psychometric and item development processes?

This session will offer insights from collaborative work undertaken by Ontario, Canada’s large-scale assessment agency, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) and its technology provider, Vretta. Presenters will describe how the organizations have partnered to collect, store, analyze and report on process data. The session will provide practical insights on five elements that cover an end-to-end process data lifecycle:

1) Structuring working groups to ensure collaboration across multiple teams.
2) Determining and implementing technology requirements.
3) Incorporating process data into existing data lifecycle processes and transforming unstructured log files for meaningful analyses.
4) Integrating process data into research plans and item development processes.
5) Reporting process data findings to meaningfully inform understandings of student learning and achievement.

Presenters will also showcase research findings on process data related to students’ use of universal accessibility features in the EQAO assessment program.