How Can We Get Benefits of Computer-Based Testing in Engineering Education?

Abstract

Using computers for assessment can provide several benefits for educators and test-takers. However, in the literature, there is no consensus on the equivalence of paper-and-pencil (P&P) and computer-based test (CBT) environments. Additionally, these studies fail to address the engineering domain. Our main assumption is that, if we could define the confounding factors to satisfy that these two versions of the tests provide equivalent results, then especially in the first year courses of the engineering education programs, we could get several benefits of the CBT environments. Accordingly, in this study, students' performance o different test modes waws evaluated on 209 first year engineering students of a chemistry course. The results of this study showed that there is no significant performance difference between P&P and CBT. By comparing results with the previous studies, this study concludes that personal characteristics of test talers, the features of CBT systems, and the test content are all possible confounding factors when comparing test modes anf need to be considered by the implementers. The results of this study show that once these factors are controlled, students' performance on CBTs and P&P tests in chemistry courses will not vary. This finding is encourging the educators to get benefits of CBTs without any affect on students' performance.