Quality measurement is essential in every form of research, including institutional research and assessment. Unfortunately, most survey research today (both published and unpublished) is lacking with regards to quality measurement. Reporting means and standard deviations based on ordinal measures is an inappropriate, yet widespread practice in the…

The 11th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2018) is held under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society at the Templeton Landing in Buffalo, New York. This year's EDM conference was highly competitive, with 145 long and short paper submissions. Of these, 23 were accepted as full papers and 37…

Explains computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and its basis in item response theory. Describes a CAT program in pharmacology. (SK)

Discusses the use of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) in the classroom. Highlights include item response theory; sequential probability ratio test (SPRT); combining SPRT with expert system reasoning, resulting in EXSPRT; and a study of college students that examined the efficiency and accuracy of the various CAT methods discussed. (Contains 16…

Developed an extension of the Rasch model from a Bayesian point of view and used the model to study whether learning occurred throughout a computer-administered intelligence test. Results from 137 college students indicate that learning did occur and that there might be individual differences in learning rate. (SLD)

The precision of a computerized adaptive test (CAT) with a limited item pool was measured using test results from 4,494 nursing students. Regardless of the item pool size, CAT provides greater precision in measurement with a smaller number of items administered even when the choice of items is limited, but CAT fails to achieve equiprecision along…

Computer adaptive testing is the study of scoring tests and questions based on assumptions concerning the mathematical relationship between examinees' ability and the examinees' responses. Adaptive student tests, which are based on item response theory (IRT), have many advantages over conventional tests. We use the least square method, a…

This paper synthesizes ideas from the fields of graphical modeling and education testing, particularly item response theory (IRT) applied to computerized adaptive testing (CAT). Graphical modeling can offer IRT a language for describing multifaceted skills and knowledge, and disentangling evidence from complex performances. IRT-CAT can offer…

The utility of item response theory (IRT) models in computerized adaptive tests is considered. Measurement questions that have been answered using IRT, and those that might be overlooked because of IRT, are reviewed. Areas in which fuller use of IRT could improve adaptive testing practices are identified. (SLD)

Discussion of expert systems and computerized adaptive tests describes two versions of EXSPRT, a new approach that combines uncertain inference in expert systems with sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) stopping rules. Results of two studies comparing EXSPRT to adaptive mastery testing based on item response theory and SPRT approaches are…

Implemented computerized adaptive testing (CAT) to measure students' attitudes toward alcohol. Administered a paper-and-pencil version and a CAT version of an attitudes toward alcohol scale to 113 undergraduates enrolled in health education classes. Findings showed a high correlation between scores from the CAT and the paper-and-pencil versions.…

Developed a computerized adaptive language proficiency test for a community college in Quebec, Canada and obtained item response theory calibrations on the items from 700 to 800 administrations. Describes projected efforts to detect instances in which "cheating low" (answering incorrectly deliberately) occurs. (SLD)

The most useful method of item selection for making pass-fail decisions with a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) was studied. Medical technology students (n=86) took a computer adaptive test in which items were targeted to the ability of the examinee. The adaptive algorithm that selected items and estimated person measures used the Rasch model and…

According to item response theory (IRT), examinee ability estimation is independent of the particular set of test items administered from a calibrated pool. Although the most popular application of this feature of IRT is computerized adaptive (CA) testing, a recently proposed alternative is self-adapted (SA) testing, in which examinees choose the…

Equatings were performed on both simulated and real data sets using common-examinee design and two abilities for each examinee. Results indicate that effective equating, as measured by comparability of true scores, is possible with the techniques used in this study. However, the stability of the ability estimates proved unsatisfactory. (TJH)