Testing is an important part of learning. That's why we've the course "testing and evlaution" this semester. Using IT in testing isn't a new thing. TOEFL and GRE changed to computer-based a few years ago.
Computer-based tests had received quite a lot of research these years. Some people commented that these tests had limited item types (MC, cloze, gap filling) and the test might not be valid enough. The positive point of view is CBT makes scoring much easier. The computer can report the result right after the test-taker completes the test. For paper-based test, we always need to wait for months. However, the test-taker can't skip an item or change their mind afterwards. The technique for taking a CBT is different from paper-based test. In class, we always teach our students exam strategies in addition to language skills. We teach our students to skip difficult items and try the easy ones first. We teach our students to read the questions before reading the comprehension passage. These exam strategies may not work for CBT. So, if our students need to take CBT, we need to teach them other exam strategies.
I think CBT maybe useful for low stake quizzes. But for high stake exam, paper-based test will still be my choice (in local primary schools).
CBT is good for testing receptive language abilities, but I wonder if it works for productive language abilities. Some people tried to develop CBT for assessing writing and speaking. The most important step is to train the computer to do subjective scoring. I don't think the computer can do it well at this moment. Maybe after ten years, the computer can replace human markers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think it's quite difficult for computer to mark writing tests in public exams since subjective assessment is inevitable in marking production work like writing and oral performance. At present stage, I guess few CBT system can do this. Maybe, after decades, it may come true and CBT may become a must in students learning.
I do agree that CBT will play an important role, but after decades. The technology nowadays are not mature enough. As Venus mentioned, we need to train the computer to score objectively, which might needs a certain period to train the computer!
Post a Comment