Using Generative AI in Item Writing with Dr. Olena Rossi
Using Generative AI in Item Writing with Dr. Olena Rossi
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Generative AI is transforming how language test items are written. The question is no longer whether to use it, but whether you will use it well.
This course offers a rare opportunity: sixteen hours of structured, hands-on training in AI-assisted item writing, grounded in the established principles of test development and delivered by one of the few specialists in the world working at this exact intersection. You will move through the full item-writing cycle: designing prompts that generate reading texts and listening scripts calibrated to CEFR levels, drafting items that target different levels of cognitive processing, producing AI-generated audio and multimodal materials for writing and speaking tasks, and, most importantly, developing the professional judgement to evaluate, revise, or reject what the machine produces. You leave not with a set of tricks, but with a defensible methodology you can apply, and justify, in your own institution.
YOUR TRAINER
Olena Rossi, PhD in Language Testing (Lancaster University), is an independent assessment consultant specialising in item writing, with a client list of testing organisations worldwide. Her current research examines precisely what this course teaches: the application of AI to language test development. She is the founding convenor of EALTA's AI for Language Assessment Special Interest Group. It is difficult to find anyone better placed to teach this material.
THE PROGRAMME
Four live, interactive sessions · Saturdays 7, 14, 21 & 28 November 2026
12:30–16:30 KSA (13:30–17:30 UAE) · 16 hours of live instruction
Online via Zoom · Certificate of attendance provided
Optional Practical Strand: apply each week's methods to your own tasks and receive individual feedback from Olena and structured peer review, the closest thing to a supervised apprenticeship in AI-assisted item writing
ENROLMENT
Enrolment is capped at 40. This is a working course, not a webinar: the cap exists so every participant writes, discusses, and receives answers.
GALTA members receive preferential rates. Member tickets unlock with the code in your members' email. Not yet a member? Membership is currently free at galta.org; joining before you book saves up to £80.
Intended audience. Teachers, item writers, and assessment professionals with some experience developing language tests. No prior knowledge of AI is required.
Questions? Write to emanfahad@galta.org