There is a common problem for all continuous education to determine what a person already knows and then be able to take an informed decision on what to learn. The decision is of course easier if there are clear options to choose from (such as a short list of courses). Digital literacy is one of the skills that many working people would like to improve, and yet with competition for time from work, family and own interest, they do not want to spend time treading through material only to recognize that they already know it. There has to be progress and efficiency in learning.
Hence, the validation (or certification, assessment, verification, estimation, evaluation, knowledge or diagnostic test, examination — whatever you prefer to call it) of one’s level of skills and knowledge in an area is perhaps the most fundamental step towards continuous education. The step, by the way, is avoided in educational programs by design: the curriculum is built to progress where the prerequisites are established in prior courses for the next installment on learning.
We have tested some online tests for assessing digital literacy. Our collective finding is that they serve different purposes, but that it is not easy to know ahead of taking the test. Hence, it is not efficient for all to try test after test until a meaningful results is obtained. And at that point the second issue appears: how to improve. This guidance is not provided by the tests. In fact, the test I took did not even provide me with direct access to the questions that I answered incorrectly; it only provided the number of the question.
My conclusion from this first scenario is that we have directly come upon the most pressing issue to solve for learning outside organised program studies, which is or will be the case for the life-long learning. In my view, we need diagnostic tests for which the result can be used to identify efficient learning modules to rectify the lack of knowledge. This could be done as a recommendation system. Ideally it should build a profile of the person in order to gradually be more and more precise in the recommendations.
