the e-Assessment pages

Question One

I want to go to your home page ?

written & edited by
Jeff Ross at Broxbourne Solutions

How is CBT&A used

The big decisions revolve around what, where and when you will use CBT&A, as summative testing, as formative testing, to support assessment, to maintain and collect portfolio work etc. Whatever those decisions you need to be sure about a number of fundamental choices before you start

• be very clear about what you want to get out of it and also the expectations of the other stakeholders,
• be certain of the resources you will need and will have available, and
• ensure that you manage the process from development to delivery

Suitability of subjects

Some subjects lend themselves much more easily to these assessment vehicles than other, but by the same token just because a subject is assessed by essays that not preclude these methods and techniques.

Pedagogic Advantages

There is considerable evidence that these systems :

• provide more stimulating, rewarding experiences for students and workers,
• can test and evaluate a wide range of knowledge,
• allow flexible self-assessment and diagnostic testing,
• can monitor the progress of candidates far more easily, 
• allow more frequent testing, and increase the speed of generation of test,
• have powerful and speedy feedback options,
• include adaptive testing to position a candidate’s ability and
• the introduction of new media and a variety of question types linked to e-Learning provide a very powerful and valuable tool.

Administrative Advantages

The systems by their very nature are expert at storing and holding information, which can simplify the administration of these assessments, can link to personnel and student records, can simplify and automate registration and entry procedures, and can provide in built monitoring and management of these systems.

Professional Issues

There are two basic areas where these systems touch upon professional issues.

Firstly in terms of the development of skills and capabilities of the staff responsible for developing and maintaining these systems. Writing items for CBT&A is not the same as for paper based assessments, whole new skill areas emerge.

Secondly, in terms of the feedback that these systems provide, they can give considerable information on how whole groups and individuals are gathering skills, knowledge and understanding, and that reflects on the person responsible for ensuring that they do.

Limitations

Finally the systems themselves are of course not without their own risks and limitations. Not least of which is the trap of allowing the software to drive the requirements not the assessment needs of the candidates. It is easy (within lots of constraints) to build very elegant systems because the software allows, almost encourages, you to do so but then lose track of what it is you are measuring and why.

And remember these are software systems. The projects to deliver most IT developments are notorious for being LATE, OVER BUDGET and not delivering the REQUIREMENTS. e-Assessment systems can quite easily fall in to the same traps, unless carefull managed - see project management

If you want assistance with any of issues, or to discuss them in more detail please do hesitate to contact us via info@broxbourne-solutions.co.uk, or use our discussion forum to seek the views of others

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