Online education, while not a new phenomenon, underwent a monumental shift during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing educators and students alike into the uncharted waters of full-time digital learning. With this shift came renewed concerns about the integrity of online assessments. Amidst a landscape rapidly being reshaped by online exam/homework…

Developing tools to identify students' misconceptions about basic biology concepts is necessary. Therefore, a two-tier diagnostic test was developed to determine such misconceptions in primary school (3rd-4th Grade) students. The test content includes two-tiered multiple-choice questions addressing common misconceptions found in the literature on…

Trigonometry is an important part of secondary school mathematics, but it is usually challenging for students to understand and learn. Since trigonometry is learned and used at a university level in many fields, like physics or geodesy, it is important to have an insight into students' trigonometry knowledge before the beginning of the university…

An undergraduate online course on Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was developed through different formats of case study that included lecture, class discussion, small-groups discussion, and individual work. Cases covering health, biotechnology, agriculture, and other issues were developed or adapted from the literature to reach the…

Restrictions and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic challenged higher education institutions to innovate to keep reaching teaching and learning goals. In South Africa, existing social inequalities were exacerbated by the pandemic restrictions and many students faced severe challenges in terms of access and support to aid in their…

The statement stated in a multiple-choice question can be developed regarding two types of sentences: Interruptive (periodic) and cumulative (or loose). This study deals with different kinds of stems in designing multiple-choice (MC) items. To fill the existing gap in the literature, two groups of teacher students passing general English courses…

Tests of statistical significance often play a decisive role in establishing the empirical warrant of evidence-based research in education. The results from pattern-based assessment items, as introduced in this paper, are categorical and multimodal and do not immediately support the use of measures of central tendency as typically related to…

This study quantified the orthographic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of spelling conventions) of school speech-language pathologists (SLPs). On average, SLPs (N = 48) answered 65% of the questions correctly on a measure of orthographic knowledge. SLPs need better preparation in written language structure to support reading acquisition in children…

A new diagnostic instrument, the Conceptual Survey on Wave Optics (CSWO), was developed and validated on 224 high school students (aged 18-19 years) in Croatia. The process of test construction, which included the testing of 61 items on the total of 712 students is presented. The final version of the test consists of 26 multiple-choice items which…

Research about repeated testing has revealed that retaking the same exam form generally does not advantage or disadvantage failing candidates in selected response-style credentialing exams. Feinberg, Raymond, and Haist (2015) found a contributing factor to this phenomenon: people answering items incorrectly on both attempts give the same incorrect…

We discuss a practical method for assessing mathematical proof online. We examine the use of faded worked examples and reading comprehension questions to understand proof. By breaking down a given proof, we formulate a checklist that can be used to generate comprehension questions which can be assessed automatically online. We then provide some…

Synthetically generated speech (SGS) has become an integral part of our oral communication in a wide variety of contexts. It can be generated instantly at a low cost and allows precise control over multiple aspects of output, all of which can be highly appealing to second language (L2) assessment developers who have traditionally relied upon human…

Unlike the traditional multiple-choice (MC) format, the discrete-option multiple-choice (DOMC) format does not necessarily reveal all answer options to an examinee. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the reduced exposure of item content affects test security. We conducted an experiment in which participants were allowed to view…

We employed qualitative research methods to examine student learning in context during a teacher's unit on 1920s-Great Depression in an 11th grade United States & Virginia History class in a standards-based setting with a high-stakes end-of-course test. We focused on four focal students (all of whom were classified as English learners at some…

A deep understanding of mechanical waves is crucial for students to succeed in studying many advanced physics topics. Studies in existing literature have revealed that students often have widespread difficulties and misconceptions on wave propagation. This research develops and applies a conceptual framework model to examine students'…