The recent literature on computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has developed methods for creating CAT item pools from a large master pool. Each CAT pool is designed as a set of nonoverlapping forms reflecting the skill levels of an assumed population of test takers. This article presents a Monte Carlo method to obtain these CAT pools and discusses…

Item selection is a core component in computerized adaptive testing (CAT). Several studies have evaluated new and classical selection methods; however, the few that have applied such methods to the use of polytomous items have reported conflicting results. To clarify these discrepancies and further investigate selection method properties, six…

The assessment of learning in large online courses requires tools that are valid, reliable, easy to administer, and can be automatically scored. We have evaluated an online assessment and learning tool called Knowledge Assembly, or Knowla. Knowla measures a student's knowledge in a particular subject by having the student assemble a set of…

Few studies have explored the subjective mental health of adolescents with intellectual disabilities, while proxy ratings indicate an overrepresentation of mental health problems. The present study reports on the design and an initial empirical evaluation of the Well-being in Special Education Questionnaire (WellSEQ). Questions, response scales,…

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a year-long reading while listening (RWL) program run for university first-year students at a private university in Japan. The program was developed to give students practice in listening to a large volume of spoken English--a practice that the majority of Japanese students lack. The…

Although the use of computerized testing in psychopathology assessment has increased in recent years, limited research has examined the impact of this format in terms of potential differences in test validity rates. The current study explores potential differences in the rates of valid and invalid Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2…

In this article, the author describes his project to take every standardized exam English majors students take. During the summer and fall semesters of 2012, the author signed up for and took the GRE General Test, the Praxis Content Area Exam (English Language, Literature, and Composition: Content Knowledge), the Senior Major Field Tests in…

This study investigates the combined effects of task-based careful online planning and the storyline structure of a task on second language performance (complexity, accuracy and fluency). Sixty intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 15). Participants were asked to perform two tasks with different degrees of storyline…

This study compares the language learner and test-taking strategies used by Chinese-speaking graduate students when confronted with familiar versus unfamiliar topics in an English multiple-choice format reading comprehension test. Thirty-six participants at a large mid-western university performed three tasks: A content knowledge vocabulary…

This study investigates the effect of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic routines used in academic discussion, specifically expressions of agreement, disagreement, and clarification. Thirty-seven learners, including an experimental group of 26 students and a control group of 11 students, participated in the study. Five intact classes…

This study explores the transfer of assessment practices from f2f to online environments by college instructors, with a particular interest in the factors influencing assessment in online learning settings. Assessment is a critical aspect of the learning environment, and considerable research has suggested various methods of formative and…

Assessing individual change is an important topic in both psychological and educational measurement. An adaptive measurement of change (AMC) method had previously been shown to exhibit greater efficiency in detecting change than conventional nonadaptive methods. However, little work had been done to compare different procedures within the AMC…

A generic approach in automated essay scoring produces scores that have the same meaning across all prompts, existing or new, of a writing assessment. This is accomplished by using a single set of linguistic indicators (or features), a consistent way of combining and weighting these features into essay scores, and a focus on features that are not…

Advances in natural language processing (NLP) and automatic speech recognition and processing technologies offer new opportunities for language testing. Despite their potential uses on a range of language test item types, relatively little work has been done in this area, and it is therefore not well understood by test developers, researchers or…

To a first approximation, human memory is divided into two parts, short-term and long-term. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) attempts to minimize the short-term memory load while maximizing the memory available for transferring knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. According to CLT there are three types of load, intrinsic, extraneous, and…