Online student assessment features in many distance-learning programs. The prevention of plagiarism has been the subject of much attention, but insufficient attention has been given to other problems of dishonesty in online assessment. We survey the types of problems that can occur and what can be done about them. We believe many educators are…

This paper focuses on computer-based assessment embedded in the process of instruction, with the assessment being used for placement, assignment, instructional feedback, progress assessment, and/or exit testing. This discussion is based on experience in developing and evaluating assessment and instruction materials for college-level remedial…

Research has shown that multiple-choice questions formed by transforming or paraphrasing a reading passage provide a measure of student comprehension. It is argued that similar transformation and paraphrasing of lesson questions is an appropriate way to form parallel multiple-choice items to be used as a posttest measure of student comprehension.…

This paper reviews the research literature regarding the importance of Witkin's theory of psychological differentiation, particularly the research on measures of field independence using perceptual disembedding tasks. The first phase of development of a multiple-choice perceptual disembedding measure, the Finding Embedded Figures Test, is…

A study of 696 undergraduates at the University of Northern Colorado was undertaken to determine the effects of computerized unit test item feedback on final examination scores. The study, which employed the PHOENIX computer managed instruction system, included students at all undergraduate levels enrolled in an Oceanography course. To determine…

In January 1985, Employment and Immigration Canada funded a pilot project in New Brunswick for the development and testing of an Interprovincial Computerized Examination Management (ICEM) System. The resulting system is comprised of a dual interprovincial and provincial item bank facility, a software component offering the option of computerized…

The difficulty of test items administered by paper and pencil were compared with the difficulty of the same items administered by computer. The study was conducted to determine if an interaction exists between mode of test administration and ability. An arithmetic reasoning test was constructed for this study. All examinees had taken the Armed…

The purpose of this paper is to report results on the development of a new computer-assisted methodology for creating parallel test forms using the item response theory (IRT) information function. Recently, several researchers have approached test construction from a mathematical programming perspective. However, these procedures require…

The purpose of this study is to determine an efficient way to reduce the bias in estimates of the Rasch model parameters due to aberrant response patterns. First, the benefits of using one- or two-sided goodness-of-fit tests of patterns with the model are discussed. Then, the consequences of removing non-fitting patterns from Rasch model data are…

A heuristic for solving large-scale zero-one programming problems is provided. The heuristic is based on the modifications made by H. Crowder et al. (1983) to the standard branch-and-bound strategy. First, the initialization is modified. The modification is only useful if the objective function values for the continuous and the zero-one…

Two experiments using the same design and subjects drawn from the same populations tested two accounts of schema-directed text processing, the selective attention hypothesis that suggests readers identify text elements as important or unimportant on the basis of an engaged, operative, or subsuming schema; and the slot-filling hypothesis that…

The videodisc, audiodisc, overlapping instruction, mapping, adaptive testing strategies, intricate instructional branching, and complex media selection models are common expectations for quality courseware today. A two team development structure, consisting of an instructional development team and a test development team, is proposed. This paper…

In defense of retaining the "latent trait theory" term, instead of replacing it with "item response theory" as some recent research would have it, the following objectives are outlined: (1) investigation of theory and method for estimating the operating characteristics of discrete item responses using a minimum number of…

This paper argues that the most important role the intelligent videodisc can fulfill is to provide a mechanism for effectively integrating testing and instruction. This integration will produce at least four important benefits: (1) increased learning by the student, (2) more interesting instructional materials, (3) gains in the efficiency of…

This project evaluated a Course Management System (CMS), which was developed at the University of Illinois and implemented on the PLATO IV instructional system during two semesters of an introductory level economics course. The CMS was designed to integrate books, computer testing, and personnel utilization in applying instructional and computer…