2nd Asia-Pacific Educational Integrity Conference
Abstract
How to Ensure Reliable Assessments of Students' Achievements on Exams? A Case Study: Application of Statistical Tools in Computerized Marking of Multiple - Choice Exams Questionnaires
Nitza Davidovitch - College of Judea & Samaria, Ari'el, Israel
For the second consecutive year, the Commission of Higher Education in Israel has used a QA system to promote improved assessment processes in the institutions of higher learning in Israel. One quality index used by the Commission is the reliability of exams as a means to assess students' achievements. Sensitivity and awareness of the transparency of exam marking is necessary to prevent unequal treatment of students.
The Academic College of Judea and Samaria, Israel's largest college, uses a computerized marking method for multiple-choice exam formats, which is a format commonly used by many universities in Israel and known worldwide. Image net Ltd., in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine of the Tel Aviv University, developed an innovative tool that provides statistical analyses of students' exams. The unique tool, the only one of its kind in use in Israel, promises to enhance the quality of testing and improve the equity of the student marking process. At the conference, the instruments and method will be presented, including reports received by course instructors containing various indicators for each exam item: level of difficulty (percentage of correct answers), distribution of destructors, and discriminate values.
This report allows instructors to confirm the quality of the exam items, and eliminate human errors in marking and recording. Above it, this method allows instructors to grant fairer grades after factoring problematic exam items.
Data indicating improvements in exam grades' reliability will be presented and possible future directions of development and potential application for other exam formats will be discussed.
