The iSkills™ Assessment

ETS has a long history of effectively helping institutions satisfy accreditation requirements and measure student performance. And, as the conversations around student learning outcomes and the shifting higher education landscape continue, it is important to work with a market leader who can provide valid and reliable data now and position you for the future.

Demonstrate critical thinking in a digital environment

Your students need essential digital skills for the 21st century. You need an assessment that can measure and demonstrate student ability while optimizing your time and resources. The iSkills™ assessment from ETS is an outcomes-based assessment that measures the ability to think critically in a digital environment through a range of real-world tasks. This one-hour exam:

  • Features real-time, scenario-based tasks that measure an individual's ability to navigate, understand and critically evaluate the variety of information available through digital technology
    • Tasks mirror the way individuals use information in academic, business and personal contexts
    • Test content is balanced among the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, practical affairs and popular culture
  • Delivers individual and group data for multiple uses, including:
    • Student evaluation and placement
    • Curriculum development
    • Accreditation and accountability initiatives
  • Assesses the outcomes for information literacy and digital fluency required by regional accreditors
  • Allows your students to earn a Certificate of Achievement based on their performance

Developed with the assistance of leaders from both two and four-year colleges, the iSkills assessment requires students to demonstrate their ability to synthesize many different types of data and make sound judgments about what's accurate, relevant and useful. The assessment gauges how well students:

  • Evaluate the usefulness and sufficiency of information for a specific purpose
  • Create, generate or adapt information to express and support a point
  • Communicate information to a particular audience or in a different medium
  • Define an information problem or formulate a research statement
  • Access, summarize and integrate information from a variety of digital sources

Focused on the Needs of Today’s Institutions — New for 2013!

Additional Administration Options — Coming Soon

Currently the iSkills assessment is available using proctored on-campus delivery. Soon you will be able to administer the assessment using a proctored off-campus method. This newly introduced option to use off-campus testing provides institutions with even more flexibility to securely test remote students or students studying in online courses.

Certificates of Achievement — Available Now

Recently published ETS research proves that motivation has an important impact on performance. In order to help you motivate students to perform their best and increase participation, ETS has introduced performance-level certificates for the iSkills assessment. These new certificates can provide students with motivation to do well, which ultimately helps institutions to better position themselves for accreditation and performance funding.

The certificates show successful completion of the assessment and also categorize scores in three different performance levels to show the kinds of tasks that can commonly be performed by test takers in each score range:

  • Developing ICT Literacy
  • Foundational ICT Literacy
  • Advanced ICT Literacy

Each performance level is clearly defined on the certificate. And the certificate includes a detailed explanation of the test-taker’s levels of strength in the various task areas defined by the ICT literacy framework.

Who takes the test and why?

College students take the iSkills assessment so that institutions can evaluate students' level of critical thinking skills in a digital environment. This assessment can be used for placement and opt-out of relevant coursework, accreditation and funding purposes, and to help identify when interventions are needed for students. Plus, students can also earn a Certificate of Achievement. Students can share the certificate with an unlimited number of academic institutions and prospective employers. The certificate also adds value to institutions looking to measure student learning outcomes. Knowing a certificate – with value beyond the classroom – is at stake, students will have the motivation to perform well and demonstrate their true ability.

When and where do students take the exam?

There are no preset test administration dates. Testing is conducted at your convenience. The test is administered in a proctored environment on a computer employing the iSkills assessment secure browser. The proctored test can be administered on-campus by your staff or off-campus using a remote proctor.

For more information, review the Systems Requirements.

Contact Us

For more information about the iSkills assessment, contact an ETS advisor at 1-800-745-0269 or contact an ETS Advisor. ETS Advisors are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. ET.