Spanish Language Assessments

May 10, 2016

As we continue to modify our Northstar modules with improvements based on user feedback and to further develop our infrastructure to keep up with demand, we've found that maintaining Northstar's Spanish versions for older modules is not sustainable. While we recognize that they have provided value for some of our sponsor sites, the overall usage is very minimal (less than 1%), to a degree that we cannot justify the expense to maintain them. On May 23rd,, we are planning to remove the Spanish modules as options for sponsor-site assessments (the Spanish modules were removed from public assessments a couple of months ago). We will move the Spanish modules' files to a separate location that can still be accessed, for sponsor sites that could find value from observing Spanish-speaking learners walking through the assessments; however, the Spanish modules will no longer be tied into the certificate- or badge-awarding mechanisms, and the scoring feature will not be fully functional from then onward. We know that this decision disappoints some sponsor sites, and we don't take the decision lightly. Unfortunately, we have limited resources, and we strive to use these in an efficient manner.