COMPUTER BASED TESTING AND ASSESSING PACKAGE Liana RAZMERITA, Diana STEFANESCU, Severin BUMBARU,
Adrian ISTRATE
Keywords: testing, evaluation, assessment, computer based training system, WWW pages, NetDynamics.
The importance of computer based training has been increased in the last decades. Rapid growth of the new information technology based on the hypermedia paradigm influences the concepts of computer assisted education and structured information systems. Hypermedia (written texts, photos, diagrams, sound, music, television, video, animation, usually on a computer platform) is a technology that can effectively facilitate learning.
The accent in teaching techniques has shifted towards interactive learning strategies, which can be applied by computer assisted learning. One of the major results of shifting the focus from the teacher to the learner is that control and responsibility for learning also shifts to the learner.
The adaptability and the flexibility of the instructional system implies the testing and the assessment of the students knowledge [5]. The results of assessment, are used to assess the knowledge acquisition of knowledge and to adapt the instruction to specific elements of students performance. Assessment can be used as a tool to enhance learning, that's why must be an integral part of the learning loop. A model of what student knows could enable to more effectively map the domain's (expert's) knowledge onto the learner's. On the other hand, computer assessment could be a practical means of ensuring that students carry out exercises correctly. If they don't, they are guided by the system to make good their deficiencies.
The computer based testing and assessing package (CBTAP) was designed to enable its integration in a computer based training system (CBTS) implemented at the University of Galati [2]. The main goal of the training system is to present to the students all the needed information in different disciplines using both modern communication technology and new teaching methods. Some of the most important advantages of such a training system: student’s engagement in responsible active participation in the learning task; student’s encouragement to engage in self-evaluation of progress; student’s involvement in the decision making related to learning.
The objective of the paper is to present this CBTAP designed by the authors of the paper.
Assessing the student's understanding and acquisition of the domain knowledge is very important for the educational process. Assessing students learning is a very tedious process, and it would be good if we could automate at least part of this process.
The basic idea was to generate a series of test questions from a database in a HTML format, to accept the student answers and to determine its correctness. Based on student’s answer the system has to make available a summary of each students performance.
One of the most important technical problem we had to solve was the design of the software application for CBTAP. NetDynamics offers the necessary software instruments for building the application. The application dynamically creates, generating Java code, WWW pages which represent a friendly interface [1]. The most important part of information are extracted from the databases tables. There are also Java applications especially for assessment and for taking account of student’s answers .
The whole system is under construction and it will work on the workstations of the University LAN. The INTERNET connection will make available distributing and receiving information to other external clients, or from other WWW sites of the network.
The CBTAP architecture is represented in figure 1:
There are several important functions a CBTAP must carry out:
A NetDynamics application permit the professor to register the test questions and the answers in databases. For loading the tables, it has been created an application builder, a NetDynamics application, which contain a HTML form, in which the professor introduces each question (the text, options and types of answers, the value of answers, etc.). The content is automatically appended into database tables. The HTML form is a user-friendly interface to introduce tests for different disciplines. CBTAP has a flexible and extendable structure which permit its integration in a CBTS.
Test application stored in database format can be presented to the user as a sequence of WWW pages obtained by means of NetDynamics applications. WWW test pages presented to the user are not static, they are dynamically built. For the moment questions are selected randomly from the test "bank" so that no two students get exactly the same question. We have designed some templates for these test applications pages. Some features of CBTAP interface can be observed in figure 2:
The purpose of presentation standards is to make the medium as unobstrusive and sympathetic to the user as possible. Computer based testing and assessing package is designed to be user-friendly wherever possible in order to minimize the threat of an examination.
Each test application contents sets of questions. These questions can be categorized as:
Multiple choice questions offer a list of answers and require the student to use the tab key or the mouse to select the correct ones. It can be one or more correct answers. The student can obtain a score in range 0-1 for each question as calculated in (2.1).
Prompt questions require the student to respond with a single numeric or word response. For this stage, CBTAP don’t supply a list of alternate keywords.
Test results and all responses will be automatically record in a special database named RESULTS . From this database it can be obtained statistics and the finale score used to build the the TEST STATISTICS page. Statistics measures students performance and can aid validation of a course.
Each test, is scored corresponding to the following rules:
correct answer for a choice : Si =1;
incorrect answer for a choice : Si =0;
no answer for a correct choice: Si =0;
no answer for a incorrect choice: Si =1;
Sp= 
(1 ) Sf =
(2)
At the end of an application, is made an assessment of student’s knowledge, as test statistics. Some features of the test statistics can be observed in figure 3:
An important feature of CBTAP is the possibility of feedback to student. At the end of test application, the student will receive the test application finale score and statistics and can choose to see the corrected test to see how it should be completed.
One of the most important problems is to create and maintain a complete set of database tables. These tables contain: information for the student testing and other information necessary for the assessment.
For this stage of the application the tables are designed in Microsoft-Access. The application works with several databases simultaneously.
The tables organization structure for CBTAP is illustrated bellow (figure 4):
QUESTION table contains information referring to each question of application tests (the text of question, the chapter the question belongs, etc.).
V_ANSWER table contains information related to the questions (options of answers, the truth value of answers).
The SCORES table records information referring to each student who uses the training system (during the training session). There are also recorded the tests and the finale scores achieved for each test. These results are available for assessments, statistics, updating for further sessions.
The results of intermediate assessments (for a question) are appended in RESULTS table. The interogation of this database and of V_ANSWER permits to obtain the information necessary for TEST STATISTICS page. On the other hand it can be obtained a corrected form of the test completed.
The tables specifications for CBTAP is illustrated bellow:
DISCIPLINE ( Id_Discipline C4, N_Discipline C250)
CHAPTER( Id_Chapter C4, Id_Discipline C4, N_Chapter C250)
QUESTION ( Id_Discipline C4, Id_Chapter C4, Id_Quest C4, Text_Quest C250, Type_Quest C2)
V_ANSWER( Id_Discipline C4, Id_Question C4, Text_Ans C250, Val_Ans L, Time N 2)
RESULTS (Id_Student C4, Id_Discipline C4, Id_Question C4, St_Ans L, Data D, Id_Test C4)
SCORES (Id_Student C4, Score_F N3, Data D, Id_Test C4).
STUDENTS ( Id_Student C4, Name C30, St_Group N4)
These tables are related, relationships of entities are suggested in figure 4.
This package has to be a secure CBTAP system, which implies severe limitations access to the students. This is a very important aspect because students mustn’t be allowed to modify the system’s assessments. This is a problem of database information security.
Markle in 1969, one of the pioneers of the self-study approach to learning, suggested three principles for course developers: learner activity, achievement and feedback. Explaining where you went wrong and prompting you to succeed next time is at the heart of good teaching [4]. A CBTAP can stimulate learner’s activity, to assess how much the learner has learned and to generate the necessary feedback.
For the further, we want to extend this package with more facilities to imbed all these principles and to get closed to an intelligent evaluation module. The design of CBTAP permits to add new types of tests, not only prompt and multiple choices, but also texts that could be evaluated and scored by professors. We think to add explanations to the wrong answers, an expert system to interpret these wrong answers so that to enable to obtain a student profile of what he knows and what he doesn’t. Such a CBTAP integrated in a CBTS could include three evaluation types [6]:
Summative evaluation refers to the type of evaluation which is used to check on the achievement of the stated learning outcomes. It is done at the end of a test application lesson.
Formative evaluation refers to the type of evaluation which is done during the progress of the course or instruction. It is use to check on learning difficulties, and to suggest alternate approach or some kind of remedial action.
Cumulative evaluation really refers to the process of aggregating summative assessment in a program to arrive at a final grade (at the end of discipline matter). Also, continuous assessment is a form of cumulative evaluation. It is really an indicator of progress toward achievement of the course objectives.
An intelligent evaluation module (an extension of this CBTAP) associated with a pedagogic module, can help to guide the process of education to obtain maximum effectiveness in learning process in computer based training. Thus, a CBTS can be an integrated, flexible system which individualize the student-system relation. The aspect of individualization of learning ties in closely with interactivity and motivation.
Assessing the student's understanding and acquisition of the domain knowledge is very important for the educational process. The role of the assessement package is not to teach, but to provide an incentive for learning (grades, statistics) and feedback concerning the student present knowledge and understanding.
One of the major advantages is that CBTAP will allow to assess students undertaking distance education without the need for those students to travel. Automated marking could provide easy and continuos assessment and feedback to a large number of students. CBTAP could enable to obtain an integrated, flexible computer based training system.
References
Liana RAZMERITA, Diana STEFANESCU, Severin BUMBARU and Adrian ISTRATE Department of Computer Science, University "Dunarea de Jos" of Galati Str. Domneasca nr. 47, Galati 6200, Romania phone ++40 36 460106 E-mail: liana@alpha.ugal.ro, diastef@alpha.ugal.ro, sbumbaru@alpha.ugal.ro, aistrate@alpha.ugal.ro