OWL Testing Software has announced that the global education company Berlitz and their language-testing division, Second Language Testing, Inc (SLTI), are using the OWL Test Management System (TMS).

OWL TMS is built as a Web-based solution for test creation, administration and management. According to company officials, it is a flexible online test builder that can be applied to any learning situation.

Recently, the global education company selected the OWL TMS site license to deliver English proficiency exams for the Colombian government, enabling them to determine the English-speaking capabilities of thousands of employment candidates who are bilingual speakers of English.

As per its agreement with the government of Colombia, Berlitz has delivered over 19,000 exams, proctored in multiple locations. Through oral response items as well as multiple choice questions, each candidate’s ability to read, speak and listen to English is evaluated.

SLTI develops exams according to custom needs of a customer. Berlitz said that it needs a flexible test management system to develop, deliver and evaluate the custom-built language proficiency exam.

Moreover, the system should be able to meet the Colombian government’s unique testing and proctoring requirements, including a localized examinee interface -- in this case Spanish; audio prompts in both the examinees’ first language and the target language; the ability to deliver Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) items; and more.

Company officials said that the OWL auto registration is used to provide each candidate with a unique login id and password, while with OWL’s timing features, overall testing times are controlled and also individual item response times are carefully calibrated, delivering the assessment according to SLTI's detailed specifications.

Chris Dalessandri, CEO at OWL Testing Software, said that this project clearly demonstrates how easily the OWL TMS can be integrated into a testing company's business model as an affordable way to complete the assessment triad.

“In this case the three key players are: Berlitz, a company well-known for language learning; SLTI, a firm that specializes in psychometrics and assessment creation; and OWL, a premier provider of Web-based test management.” Dalessandri said.

OWL Testing Software is a provider of online test management to academia, business, and government organizations. Dalessandri said that OWL provides a test delivery platform that is not only flexible enough to build assessments in the manner recommended by the psychometricians, but is also automated and scalable to deliver that assessment consistently to thousands of examinees simultaneously and securely across multiple locations.

Last year in December, Yale University selected OWL TMS for their Center for Language Study (CLS).