Sticking to as many characteristics of a good test in education as possible is a challenging process for teachers. Show
In 10 min or less, you’ll get a brief on all commonly agreed upon characteristics, practical ways to employ them in order to make your test reliable, and top of the world universities that use them! One of the major goals of education is to prepare students for the next step in their future. They have to make sure that their learners have acquired enough knowledge about the field of study. Only good tests ensure this. A good test is not only a score that learners struggle to ace. It’s feedback a student receives to improve his skills and knowledge and a good teacher loves to get back to, always, to make sure their teaching strategies are on point and whether they need development or not. It’s also a feedback for decision-makers in all educational institutions and governmental positions who need good data to get to the next step of the institution or the State’s education plan. It’s not something centric that students spend days of anxiety on, wondering how well they will do in a given test and how well the test questions are actually written and whether they are questions they do know the answer to or not. 
What Are the Characteristics of a Good Test in Education?What is a good test in education? It is an evaluation through which teachers measure learners’ abilities and points of weaknesses and strengths. It gauges their knowledge in the field of study and provides both sides with real feedback. A good test should ensure that learners are ready to move to the next step whether this step is a high school, college, or even the military. In our previous event, the first free online webinar, “Ensuring Effective E-Assessment for Higher Education,” Qorrect e-assessment team, discussed the complete cycle of a good test in detail focusing on higher education examination. The team discussed how to analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate the phases that together comprise the e-assessment life cycle, going through the e-assessment life cycle and its importance to higher education, edtech role in the evolution of the digital assessment process. That’s plus considering the contribution of edtech in improving assessment quality, analysing the examinees’ responses, assessing the exam’s quality and the effectiveness of the involved questions in measuring what they are designed to measure. Read our article “Why You Shouldn’t Overlook the Importance of Probing Questions in Teaching” Join Qorrect Now for FREE What Are the Qualities of Good Assessment?An assessment is a process through which students can share their educational experiences. In order for a test to be a good tool for measuring students’ knowledge and skills, it should have the following characteristics of examination that are essential for the success of any test. Reliability or ConsistencyReliability or consistency of a test means that learners should perform the same or get the same score if they are exposed to different questions in different times and places. A test is considered reliable when the same result is achieved over different tests. As James Carlson mentions in his research memorandum, “The reliability of test scores is the extent to which they are consistent across different occasions of testing, different editions of the test, or different raters scoring the test taker’s responses.” He also mentions some statistics to describe how a test can be reliable. How to Make Sure Your Test Is Reliable?
Reliability is the ratio of the true score and the observed score variance. To measure a test’s reliability, we may administer a test to the same group more than once. However, errors may occur as students may forget or have some physical problems. Thus, it is crucial to administer the same test in identical conditions to ensure that we will get the same results. Read “How to Make an Online Exam for Students in Only Minutes” ValidityA validity of a test can be achieved when the test measures what it is really intended to measure. Therefore, a certain criteria must be selected. Validity is very important to gauge the quality of a given test as questions must be in line with the selected criteria and measures. Here are some of the top different types of validity: Content Validity: A test should fairly represent the content of the course or the field of study. Criterion Validity: It is used to predict the performance of a job applicant or a student. Convergent validity: This is mostly used in the field of sociology or psychology. Discriminant Validity: Discriminant validity means that a test of a concept is not highly correlated with other tests that are set to measure theoretically different concepts. See how you can make objective, valid tests in education using Qorrect e-assessment system. Reserve a free Demo now. Book FREE Live Demo Today → ObjectivityAccording to Gronlund and Linn “Objectivity of a test refers to the degree to which equally competent scores obtain the same results,” the test should be away from any personal or subjective judgment. It should be based only on the evaluation of human development. For example, in an essay-type test, students answer differently as each one has his/her own style of writing. Hence, when more than one instructor check the test, they may give different scores according to whether they like the style or not. So, here, the test is less objective. To avoid such bias, sharp rules should be set in evaluating such types of tests. There should be a unified guide for teachers to use while correcting such tests. Personal judgment does not occur in true or false or multiple choice tests. Besides, teachers should receive training on how to score a test as untrained teachers may give wrong scores and not be able to maintain the required fairness and accuracy. Read “Standardized Tests: History and Implementation in Universities” ComprehensivenessA test should fully cover the entire field of study that students are exposed to during the course. Vague questions should not be included especially during online tests when students are confused and short in time. Absence of AmbiguityThere has to be no place for ambiguity especially in online tests where examiners are absent. Students should not be left in confusion and all questions have to be crystal clear. According to Jacobs, Lucy C., from Indiana University, “ambiguous questions constitute the major weakness in college tests. Ambiguous questions often result when instructors put off writing test questions until the last minute. Careful editing and an independent review of the test items can help to minimize this problem.” Read “What’s the Difference between Online Exam and Offline Exam?” PreparationTo ensure the success of any test, instructors should take into consideration the following factors:
Appropriateness of TimeOne of the top characteristics of a good test is when students have appropriate time to answer all questions. For example, essay questions require more time than multiple choice or true/false questions. Some teachers take the test themselves first and then double or triple the time for students. A good test is supposed to be practical and comprehensive. Our Conclusion of Characteristics of Good TestThere is a strong sense, however, that the use of the word ‘characteristics’ or ‘criteria’ is not optimal. It implies the development of standards against which assessments could be judged. Instead, we believe there should be a general agreement that the word ‘framework’ captures our desire to create a structure that might be useful in the development of a good test in education more precisely.
7 Outstanding Characteristics of a Good Online Test
Characteristics of a Good Test with ExamplesWhat Is the Purpose of a Test?It is an evaluation process through which examiners know who you are and what you know and think. They identify how you are different from others. Types of TestsTests can be categorized into two types according to the questions they tackle: Essay Questions Tests
Read “Proctored Exams: Here’s How to Successfully Do Remote Proctoring” Objective Questions TestsSuch tests are easy to be marked as they have true and false answers and hence they are away from any personal opinion or subjectivity. For example, true or false and multiple choice questions are objective tests. In an article titled “Harvard Courses Turn to Monitored Exams, Open-Book Assessments, and Faith in Students As Classes Move Online” Juliet E. Isselbacher and Amanda Y. Su, The Crimson writers, showed experiences of different professors through the COVID-19 pandemic and how they were forced to switch to online learning. Professor Robert N. Stavins decided to change the exam to be open-book so as to guarantee equality among students especially during the absence of any monitoring during the online tests. Other professors preferred to keep the same old style of the closed-book exam ensuring that it is verified and monitored as professor Chaudoin said “We have to trust the students, and the online exam tools give us a partial way to monitor things.” Iaura Rose Smith, from the University of Manchester, shared her experience in her article titled “My Online Exam Experience and Top Tips for Students.” She made it clear that online examinations have changed her way of studying. Instead of just thinking of passing a test, she focused on revision, knowledge, and real understanding of the course material. She said, “I would recommend using this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of your subject area and expand your knowledge further than the curriculum.” Enroll To Start Your FREE Trial Verbs Best Used in Good TestsEducators recommend using a set of key verbs related to Bloom’s theory, classification of educational objectives, when writing any type of test questions/test items. This list of verbs guarantees that the teacher or test creator is indeed asking the right questions, equivalent to that of the students’ level of knowledge and understanding. Here are some of these verbs, according to California State University website.
Qualities of Traditional and Online AssessmentWith the exposure of online learning and the use of advanced software systems in education, most instructors had to change the traditional way of testing. Traditional AssessmentTeachers used to measure students’ knowledge only by how they score in a given exam. They give students only one chance to show their competencies without discussions or classroom projects. Online AssessmentOnline assessment is a way through which teachers can improve students’ learning, knowledge, beliefs, and skills. Online assessments can be behavioral, cognitive, or communicative assessments. Students may take the online assessment in the classroom or at home and this reduces their stress. New tools are now introduced for instructors to set different types of assessments. They can use game-based assessments through many tools such as Kahoot, as mentioned in our previous article “11 Best Exam and Assessment Platforms of 2021.” Teachers can also create polls and activities. Moreover, Google Forms enable teachers to create and grade quizzes. They can choose multiple-choice quizzes or short-answer quizzes. Some tools also provide teachers with excel reports of students’ grades and feedback can be sent easily to students directly after the exam. Many advanced software systems allow teachers to deliver reliable and cheat-free exams to students and grade them instantly. This saves a lot of time for teachers. Qorrect (e-exams system) generates automated reports of the test results. To analyze the quality of the test, it provides feedback that no cheating happened during the online exam, and analyzes the performance of the students during the examination. Read “Summative Assessment Overview, Purposes, and Best Online Software” How Do I Write a Good Test?
To conclude, teachers should create their exams away from any subjectivity, ambiguity, or lack of comprehensiveness. The appropriate format should be selected to match the course materials and to measure students’ knowledge and skills. 15 Things You Need to Know about the Characteristics of a Good Test in EducationHere are 15 tips the American Board concluded its workshop “Modes of Classroom Assessment” with:
Are You Testing Students or Customers?In their book “The Trouble with Higher Education,” Patrick Smith and Trevor Hussey had a unique outlook on the system of education in general. The book linked the rise of consumerism with education, addressing the effects this now has on everything learning-related. That includes how the system of universities works today and the high prices we face today in a lot of top of the world higher ed institutions and universities… too high some students stay in debt for years (although the book addresses education in the UK, a lot of other countries may relate to the issues raised).
Because of this we must start to raise the bar for quality education and testing. Because students or customers are now less willing to tolerate less quality education, teaching, facilities, testing, grading, & reporting. Do you want to see in action how you can employ the characteristics of a good test in education for FREE? Reserve a free demo now. Claim Your Free Trials Resources:
What are the 3 qualities of a good measuring instrument?A good measuring instruments posses' three qualities, which include: validity, reliability and usability. Validity – the extent to measure what it intends to measure. It has four types; the content, construct, concurrent and predictive.
What are the factors to be considered in selecting a good measurement scale?Some of the factors are:. The type of data that is required from the respondent – ratio, interval, ordinal or nominal.. How the information will be used once it is acquired.. Number of divisions in the scale – odd or even.. Types of statistical analysis methods to be used after data is acquired.. What are the three qualities that characterize a measurement?There are several terms often used when referring to characteristics of measuring instruments: resolution, accuracy, and precision. These terms describe how sensitive instruments are to measured quantities, how bias affects the measurements, and how repeatable an instrument is when measuring.
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