Web-Based Testing and Student Assessment

Many faculty have expressed an interest in web-based assessment.

Several UO faculty have developed or installed online testing facilities for their courses. Examples:

Greg Bothun (e.g. Physics 161)
Dave Dusseau (BA101)
Hal Sadofsky et al (Arch 410/510)
SSIL-supported distance ed courses (Terri Heath et al.)

General discussion

We can distinguish several different pedagogical uses for such technology, e.g.:

formal exam assessment/grading (requires confidence that method is secure)
in- and semi-formal exam (e.g. "quizes")
student self-assessment
online tutorials with integrated practice/exercises
collecting input from students (e.g. course evaluations)

Most online quiz packages include at least 4 components:

an authoring component for use by the faculty member in preparing quizes
a delivery component for actually administering quizes
a grading component for mechanically scoring the quiz, reporting the results either to the student or to the instructor
a security/admin component for controlling who can take the quiz, etc.

Most packages use a backend database to store test information and student data. A few store tests directly as HTML; most generate them dynamically.

Overall, my sense is that a major problem with online assessment is the difficulty of security. One can, of course, proctor online tests, but that mitigates many of the benefits. It's very easy to cheat (e.g. get a friend to take the test for you) in an online setting. As a result, web-based testing software tends to be most popular with faculty who need it for some special reason, e.g. because the course is offered totally by distance ed, or because the course material whose mastery is being tested involves use of a computer. Other common uses of web-based assessment, however, don't necessarily have such stringent security constraints.

Reviews of available options

Here are some miscellaneous links I've collected to other academic sites that have evaluated or characterized available software for web-based testing:

Assessment resources: University of Maryland. Includes some discussion of the issues, and an excellent collection of links to dozens of existing packages. Undated but fairly current.
An Experiment in Class Management Using WWW: Dyerson, Curtis (1996). An Experiment in Class Management Using the World-Wide Web. in Proceedings of the Australian Conference on the World-Wide Web (AusWeb '96), Gold Coast, QLD, July 1996.; A paper describing one experiment in on-line assessment in a C.S. course at James Cook University. Good discussion of some of the pedagogical and practical issues faced by faculty interested in using this technology. (last updated 1996). Author also makes available several free web-based assessment tools.
Online Course Delivery Applications: Rudi Aksim, Algonquin College. Extensive site reviewing online course delivery tools, including some relevant to online assessment. (last update Oct 97)
Online Exercises - Links to similar projects: McMicken College math department. Interactive tutorial and training links. Somewhat dated. (last update Apr 98)
Other quiz generation programs on the web: U Hawaii has a package called "QuizCenter". This page includes links to it, plus other comparable packages. Good collection of links. Undated but fairly current. Cf. QuizCenter.
Progress Report - 7-98: University of Iowa Information Technology Services. A report on a substantial evaluation project for software useful in both pen+paper and online testing. "[S]oftware must provide for state-of-the-art psychometrics and the core database of the package had to be robust and easily extensible." (last update 29 July 1998)
Tips, Tools and Techniques: CreativeAnalytics, Inc.. Links to a variety of sites that provide educational software, including some line testing. Also highlighted is the UO Biology Department. (last update 25 June 98)
Web-based Test Delivery Systems: University of Iowa Information Technology Services. Detailed reviews of a large number of online testing software products. (last update 12 March 1997)

Sample products

Some sample commercial and freeware web-based testing products:

KNOW-IT: Commercial online test creation service.
Question Mark: Vendor sells testing software. Site includes sample exams.
QuizCenter: A free online testing service from the University of Hawaii.
UOL Web-based testing: Example of the testing services offered by this full-service web-based course vendor.
Virtual Learning Technologies -- CyberExam: Vendor sells testing software. Site includes sample exams. See also my local test version.
WebTest: Another commercial online testing service, this one from Chariot Software. N.B. there are several sites and packages called "webtest".
WebTron Web-based Testing: Test software being developed at U Arkansas. Authors report that software will be made available after Beta testing is complete.

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