Discusses the development of the Adaptive Testing Linguistic Achievement Significance (ATLAS) test used to evaluate second language proficiency of Belgian civil servants. Notes that testers encountered various problems caused by the complexity of language, the difference in background of the candidates and the absence of official objective test…

Describes "Diagnosys," a knowledge-based computer diagnostic test of basic mathematical skills developed in the United Kingdom for university students. Highlights include the need for diagnostic testing; the advantages of a computer-based test; question design; and possible future developments. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of the use of human markers to mark responses on write-in questions focuses on a study that determined the feasibility of using a computer program to mark write-in responses for the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination. The computer performance was compared with that of physician markers. (seven references) (LRW)

This paper describes the use of the Rasch model to help implement computerized administration of the standard and advanced forms of Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM), to compare relative item difficulties, and to convert scores between the standard and advanced forms. The sample consisted of 95 girls and 95 boys in Australia. (SLD)

Extended matching sets questions (EMSQs) are a form of multiple-choice question (MCQ) consisting of a stem (the question or scenario) with an extended number of possible answers. Although there is no consensus on their absolute format, for the purpose of this paper a multiple-choice question with ten or more alternative answers is considered to be…

This paper reflects on the ongoing debate surrounding the usefulness (or otherwise) of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) as an assessment instrument. The context is a graduate school of business in Australia where an experiment was conducted to investigate the use of assertion-reason questions (ARQ), a sophisticated form of MCQ that aims to…

It is widely known that parent-teacher partnerships are vital to children's progress in their development and learning in schools. These partnerships involve parent-teacher conferences, parents helping in the classroom, teachers making home visits and parent education seminars. However, partnerships rarely extend to having parents involved in the…

The main purpose of this study was to determine if online computer-based math problem-solving and paper-and-pencil math problem-solving tests are suitable tools for measuring math problem-solving, by comparing student performance on traditional style paper-based tests to performance on the same tests online. Data collection for this study was…

For many degree programmes, including those within the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development (SAPD) at the University of Reading, modularisation has resulted in increased flexibility of degree programmes and a wider choice of modules offered to students. An important consequence of this is that module co-ordinators and programme directors…

The IRT (Item Response Theory) has been studied and applied in computer-based test for decades. However, almost of all these existing studies evaluated focus merely on test questions with text-based (or static text/graphic) type of presentation form illustrated exclusively. In this paper, we present our study on test questions using both…

This article discusses a study which was designed to explore how online scaffolding can be incorporated to support knowledge acquisition in asynchronous discussion. A group of Singapore preservice teachers engaged in collaborative critiquing of videos before they embarked on their video projects to illustrate what constitutes good and bad video…

This paper presents the validation of an adaptive test developed for placement purposes in French at the post-secondary level, the French CAPT. Results from a second experiment are presented in which verbal protocols were obtained from nine college students of various levels with the thinking-aloud technique used during completion of the exam. The…

A study evaluated the effect software for self-assessment and management of reading practice had on reading achievement and motivation in two primary schools in Aberdeen, Scotland. The program utilized was The Accelerated Reader (AR) which was designed to enable curriculum based assessment of reading comprehension within the classroom. Students…

In this study some alternative item selection criteria for adaptive testing are proposed. These criteria take into account the uncertainty of the ability estimates. A general weighted information criterion is suggested of which the usual maximum information criterion and the suggested alternative criteria are special cases. A simulation study was…

This paper describes a project for the development of instructional and assessments systems to increase user-proficiency levels for the software created by WordPerfect Corporation. The project was part of an effort by WordPerfect and the Institute for Computer Uses in Education/Evaluation to create and establish standards of proficiency in the use…