An Open-Source Adaptive Comparative Judgement App for Technology Education Research and Practice: Alpha Version

The use of adaptive comparative judgement (ACJ) for assessment in technology education has been topical since its introduction to the field through the e-scape project coordinated by the Technology Education Research Unit in the United Kingdom. In the last decade, however, there has been an increasing volume of research examining how ACJ can and should be used in the technology classroom. This research has grown in volume to the point where there are now systematic reviews being conducted on the topic. There is a limitation in the use of ACJ within the field in that there does not exist an open-source tool to facilitate its widespread interrogation. Existing proprietary solutions exist and offer exceptional functionality and user experience, but they cannot be easily responsive to needs within the technology education community because they serve a much wider audience, and they cannot be easily used to experiment on algorithm optimization as to do so would be costly. In response to this need, an ACJ shinyapp has been developed. It is presented in this article from a technical perspective with a view that this description can afford needed transparency in the use of ACJ and that having such a tool now permits more systematic investigation into the impactful pedagogical usage of ACJ.