A significant new publication from the SURF project ‘Active Learning, Transparent Assessment’ is now available as a free pdf downloadand is recommended as an excellent study of eassessment design and development methodology.

Chapters include a detailed taxonomy of item types based on response structure, mapped to other taxonomies such as QTI v2.x and QuestionMark Perception; an in-depth study of multiple response items; an examination of the inadequacies of existing guidelines for question authors with proposals for an improved set of guidelines with reports on their use in their fifteen case studies; guidance on how to select and enact an appropriate subset of the new guidelines in particular contexts; methodology and task allocation for item and assessment design and development; and a detailed discussion on how the QTI specification can support the design process and innovation in assessment.  Many of the author names will be familiar as leaders in the domain, including amongst others Rob Hartog of Wageningen University (who also edits the book),Ignace Latour of Cito and Pierre Gorissen of Fontys University of Applied Science.

This book is an invaluable addition to the literature on eassessment, and will be of interest to everyone from subject matter experts and educational researchers to educational technologists, systems developers and even managers and administrators.