In January 2013 The Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge sent a contingent toMIMOSin Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss collaboration and to run a training course on Computer Adaptive Testing for interested participants in South East Asia. MIMOS is a research and development organisation that functions as an advisor to the Malaysian Government on technologies, policies and strategies relating to science and engineering, including psychometrics. It is strategic agency under the Ministry Of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia. MIMOS also has a role in defining the science and technology curricula for universities throughout the country.
The highlight of the visit was a three day workshop led by Michal Kosinski, the Operations Director of the Centre, on using Concerto, the open source adaptive testing platform, to develop online adaptive psychometric tests quickly and at low cost. Fifty participants took part, including academics from universities throughout Malaysia, representatives from the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the School Examinations Board, and members of the Psychometrics Cluster within MIMOS itself. The event also saw the first release of Concerto 3.8, a more advanced version of the software that enables a novice test developer to instantiate his or her adaptive test in real time with only minimal knowledge of script and database programming.