The motivation behind the Assessment package is to extend the functionality of the existing Survey package in both depth and breadth:

• more question formats, user response filtering and processing, versioning, import/export capabilities for standards-based exchange with non-OpenACS systems, etc.
• mechanisms to embed Assessment capabilities within other OpenACS packages and to assemble larger systems of packages within which Assessment is one component (eg dotLRN, clinical trials management systems, etc)

The current Survey package is a very capable piece of engineering that provides stand-alone data collection functions. It is subsite-aware and has been integrated to some extent with portlets. It also is just being integrated into user registration processes. These efforts point the path down which the Assessment package intends to proceed to its logical conclusion.

Development efforts for Assessment thus involve two tracks:

• refinement and extension of the data model and UIs from Survey (and its sibling forks) to support a variety of expanded user requirements
• incorporation of hooks (of various sorts, such as Service Contracts) to integrate Assessment with OpenACS subsystems: Content Repository, Workflow, Notifications, Internationalization, etc

The measure of success of the Assessment package is the ease with which it can rapidly be deployed into some high-profile implementations, notably dotLRN and a clinical trials management system under development.