ONLINE TESTING

Online Testing



Online Testing

The effect on student performance when students transition to online testing and on the differences for students between paper/pencil and online testing

Over the past decade, online testing has become very popular. Schools and places of employment have heavily utilized the services of online testing. This raises an important question. Is online testing as accurate as traditional testing? Four things to consider are the integrity of the student when taking an online test, the grading accuracy of the instructor that is administering the test, the environment that the student is testing in, and students taking traditional tests being able to ask questions before the test (Fang, Shao and Lan, 2009).

Traditional testing was widely used before online testing became so popular. When online testing became popular, some students began to earn higher grades on tests, when in the past they were not. This fact makes the integrity of online testing questionable. Online testing allows students to take tests using an open book when traditional testing would not. Being able to research information, and knowing the material is completely different (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000). With online students being able to take tests from the comfort of their homes, this would allow them to let someone else take their tests for them. This is considered cheating, and many times, the instructor may not be aware that this has happened.

Are there significant differences in performance when students transition to online testing?

The grading accuracy of the instructor is important because some instructors may not be completely skilled in grading, and may make mistakes. These mistakes in traditional testing are the reasons for questioning whether it is as accurate as online testing (Alavi, Marakas and Yoo, 2002). The instructor that administers the test may know the material well, but with one miscalculation, the test would not be graded correctly.

The environment that the student is testing in is an important factor to consider when looking at the accuracy of online and traditional testing. A student that is testing in a classroom setting may not be distracted, but a student that is testing online at home may be very distracted. The distracted student is less likely to achieve a high score on a test (Fang, Shao and Lan, 2009). This looks at online testing in a more negative light because even though the student may know the material well, they may not test well in a distracted environment.

Students being able to ask questions before tests are important because, in the online testing environment, this option may not be available. This option being available to students is great because it allows them to ask questions about material that they are uncertain about. Students not being able to ask questions before the test could mean the difference between a student passing or failing. This is one factor that makes traditional testing more accurate.

Online testing being is not as accurate as traditional testing. Besides the fact that the instructor may make mistakes in grading the tests, the traditional ...