TESTING & EVALUATION
Part 1: Examiners
This part contains some general advice on setting tests of various kinds which some institutions might find appropriate for examining the extent to which the content of the book has been assimilated by students.
General Advice on Setting Tests and Other Assessment Artefacts
Three types of assignment are dealt with briefly:
1: Names and Terms Tests
These are of the type which appear at the end of each chapter in the book. If examiners choose to use this type of test, decisions will need to be made on issues such as the following:
- Whether direct quotations from the text are acceptable.
- Whether a paraphrase of the text is acceptable.
- Whether evidence should be sought of further reading which has resulted in a more original form of wording in the answer.
2: Essays
These, particularly if they are done in the student's own time and in totally unsupervised conditions, are the type of assignments which lend themselves most easily to the downloading of material from the Internet and to other forms of plagiarism, copying from the work of other students or collaborative work. If such types of assignment are considered desirable for testing a student's capacity to organise and interpret material or to demonstrate originality of thought, then most problems can be avoided through the use of traditional, fixed-time and end-of-session examinations. Even these are not without their hazards in the age of electronic notebooks if students attempt to import them into the examination venue; hence there is an additional requirement for proper supervision.
Unfortunately, plagiarism has become a major problem worldwide and educational institutions have developed a wide range of methods to deal with instances of it and, in some cases, a graduated range of sanctions.
Fortunately, there is now available to examiners a wide range of materials to assist in the detection of plagiarism. No particular recommendations of software can be made here because of the widely differing nature of institutional requirements. The following references, however may be of interest:
- Technical Review of Palagiarism Detection Software Report
- Joint Information System Committee
- University of Luton, UK
- http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/documents/resources/Luton_TechnicalReviewofPDS.pdf
- Plagiarism-Detector
- http://www.plagiarism-detector.com/what_is_plagiarism-detector.html
If, in spite of the obvious risks attendant on the setting of unsupervised essay assignments, examiners still wish to make use of them, it is suggested that students should be provided a clear choice of unambiguous titles together with some guidance on the following issues.
- A word limit, if applicable, together with an indication of any penalties likely to be applied if it is not achieved or if it is considerably exceeded.
- A deadline for submission together with an indication of any penalties (possibly graduated) which are likely to be applied if it is not complied with.
- The expected structure of the essay, covering such issues as the provision of an introduction, the organization of material into clearly defined sections and a conclusion where appropriate.
- The provision of a bibliography with evidence that the items listed have actually been consulted for the purposes of the preparation of the essay.
- The conventions to be followed in the setting out of the bibliography.
- An indication, if this has not been provided elsewhere, of how instances of plagiarism will be investigated and dealt with. It may be necessary to define precisely what is understood by the term in a particular institutional context.
3: Computerized Tests
If you are seeking an efficient and ‘bullet-proof’ solution to the problems of assessment, you may wish to consider the development and use of test files produced by using Questionmark software. Follow the links below for further information:
- Questionmark Perception
- Questionmark Corporation
- http://www.questionmark.com/us/index.aspx
- Questionmark Computing Ltd.
- http://www.questionmark.com/uk/index.aspx
This software can be used for the generation of various kinds of question files, including multiple-choice ones which may be particularly useful when students whose native language is not English are being examined.
The tests can be delivered over computer networks and can also be rapidly computer-marked.
All problems of plagiarism, copying and collaboration can be eliminated through the use of such tests.
Raw scores can be scaled in order to permit the aims of the assessment to be fully realized.
Questions can (and probably should) be shuffled so that students cannot simply copy answers from the adjacent screens in use by other students. In any case, the software will detect such activity.
If multiple-choice tests are used, they should be tested out on random groups of students or sympathetic professional colleagues to ensure that those who have not studied the documentation which is being examined cannot obtain pass grades on the test.
Generally, the greater the number of answers that are supplied in multiple-choice tests, the less is the possibility of students obtaining high scores through guessed answers or random selection of the answers.
It is a frequently held view amongst academics that tests of this kind can only be used to test factual knowledge derived from the source documentation. In fact, it does not require the exercise of very much skill in setting the questions to ensure that skills of interpretation of historical data, for example, and deductive and interpretative skills can also be tested. Specimen multiple choice tests may well be posted on this website at some future date.
Part 2: Students
This part contains some general advice to students on how to obtain good grades through the manner in which they approach various kinds of testing and examination assignments
General Advice on Approaching Assessment Tasks
1: Names and Terms Tests
These are of the type which appears at the end of each chapter in the book. If examiners choose to use this type of test, you will need to obtain the following information:
- Whether direct quotations from the text are acceptable.
- Whether a paraphrase of the text is acceptable.
Whether evidence is being sought of further reading which enables you to provide an original form of wording in the answer. If this is the case, you will need to follow up the end-of-chapter or website recommendations for further reading before approaching this type of assessment.
2: Essay Guidelines
If your examiners have specified essay-type assignments which you are expected to complete in your own time, the following suggestions may help you to maximize your grades.
- Write down the title of your essay at the beginning.
- Make sure that you are addressing the question rubric at all times throughout your writing.
- Do NOT write simply what you know or would like to write about the subject as though the question rubric did not exist.
- Respect the word limit, if applicable. Your institution or individual examiners are likely to apply penalties if it is not achieved or if it is considerably exceeded.
- Respect the deadline for submission. Your institution or individual examiners are likely to apply penalties ranging from absolute refusal to mark work submitted late to the imposition of graduated penalties which will adversely affect the final grade which you obtain.
- Ensure that the structure of your essay complies with any guidelines provided by the examiners. Normally, a clear structure consisting of an Introduction, formal division into paragraphs or sections and a Conclusion will be appropriate.
- The provision of a bibliography with evidence that the items listed have actually been consulted for the purposes of the preparation of the essay will normally be required.
- Observe the conventions specified by your institution for the setting out of the items listed in the bibliography.
- Do not collaborate with or copy from other students in the preparation of your essay.
If you are not sure what constitutes an offence of plagiarism, the following website may be of help:
- Plagiarism Checkers Inc.
- http://www.checkforplagiarism.net/
3: Computerized Test Guidelines
In order to maximize your grades on this type of test, you are advised to follow these procedures:
- Study the material from the book and any other documents which have been specified as essential reading. You should read this material several times until you are familiar with it. If there are things which you do not understand, ask your professor or discuss the issues with other students or with native speakers of English.
- Before starting any computerized test, make sure that you have identified yourself clearly on the terminal which you are using.
- Answer ALL the questions. If you only answer 50% of the questions and you get some answers wrong, you will certainly fail the assessment. Even if you do not know the answer to a question, you should attempt to guess it. It is fairly unlikely that marks will be deducted for wrong answers so you might just obtain one or two additional marks.
- Do not attempt to guess the answers to all the questions or to select the same number for all questions in multiple-choice tests. If you do, you will fail because the test will have been designed to ensure that you cannot pass it by doing this.
- Do not copy answers from the papers of other students or from the computer screens of the student/s sitting next to you. If you do, you will probably fail the assignment because the software will detect what you have done. Your institution may apply severe penalties to your grades and may even take further action against you.
- Before you log off from any computerized test, make sure that the data from your answers has been recorded on your file. If you have any problems, consult the administrator.
- If you are permitted to see your score at the end of the assessment, do not assume that it will be the same as the final grade which you are allocated. Some institutions scale or adjust marks for purposes connected with the aims of the assessment. Sometimes external examiners request modifications to raw scores if they consider that the test has been too easy or too difficult.