Whatever happened to Online IELTS?
The recent changes to BULATS made me wonder whether IELTS might be next to go computer based. I got onto Google to try and find any rumours of such changes, but blow me down – there had already been an equivalent Online IELTS released in 2005! How did I never hear of this? Did it just disappear? How did it not take over the world? And when will they, as they must, try again?
February 5th, 2012 at 3:42 am
The one page on the IELTS website that mentions it (http://www.ielts.org/researchers/research/computer_based_ielts.aspx) is about research on the matter, and all three links are anyway dead. Seems to confirm that it is no more. Wonder if those research results are what made them scrap it.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:11 am
Looking at the list of places it was tried (Bangladesh, Dhaka; Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo; Agouza; India, New Delhi (British Council and IDP Education Australia); Italy, Milan; Jordan, Amman; Kenya, Nairobi (Australian University Studies Institute); UAE, Abu Dhabi; UAE, Dubai; Vietnam, Hanoi), I wonder if it was a way of getting rid of doubts about what happened to the physical papers, i.e. to tackle cheating.