Maths Assessment tool research (April 2021)

The brief ​

• Sumdog were developing a new formative assessment tool mapped to the national curriculum, to be accessible through their interface. ​
• As part of an ongoing research partnership, Shift Insight were commissioned to carry out research into primary educators’ needs around maths assessments, and their views on the new online assessment bank from Sumdog. 

The approach​

• 30 online interviews were conducted with a mix of teachers, senior leadership staff and maths coordinators – each lasting 45 minutes. ​
• During the interviews, respondents were shown several screenshots of both the proposed assessment tool and initial ideas of how the data could be presented in the reports. 

The value​

• Shift fed back emerging findings to Sumdog through weekly catch-up calls, along with providing a full report – followed by a presentation of findings to the wider team.​
• Findings from this research fed into development of a prototype tool and a series of wireframes, which were tested in subsequent usability research with Shift.