Written and computer-based assessment

Published on 01/06/2015 by admin

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29 Written and computer-based assessment

Written questions have a role to play alongside other assessment methods.

Written assessment has a role to play

Written approaches to assessment are well established and have been widely used to assess learners’ competence in all spheres of education. Despite the greater emphasis being placed on performance assessment, written approaches still have an important role to play. The use of written examinations has come under scrutiny with regard to their match with the expected learning outcomes and their impact on the learners’ behaviour. Alternative written assessment methods have been developed as a response to these challenges and increasingly computers have replaced paper and pencil techniques for the delivery of the assessment.

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Fig 29.1 A written examination.

The elements in written assessment

It is helpful to think of written assessment in terms of the stimulus or task that necessitates a learner’s response, the response expected of the learner, the assessment of the student’s response and the media or technology used.

The stimulus

The stimulus for the learner’s response may be:

• a short statement or question, e.g. ‘In which of the following pathologies does a patient typically present with weight loss and an increased appetite?’ or ‘List the 3 options in the management of a patient with hyperthyroidism.’

• a statement or question with accompanying diagrams or charts, e.g. ‘In the diagram which structure is labelled ‘A’?’

• a short clinical scenario with a patient’s presentation followed by a question, e.g. ‘Mrs Wilkie, a 35-year-old waitress complaining of tiredness and nervousness… ’

• a more extended patient management problem that develops over a period of time.

The student’s response

The response expected of the learner can be categorised into:

• Constructed response questions where the student has to write a long or short narrative in response to the stimulus. These include essays, short essay questions and short answer questions.

• Selected response questions where the student has to make a selection from a range of options provided. These include multiple choice questions (MCQs), for example the one best answer or multiple true/false questions and extended matching items.

The assessment of the student’s response

The learner’s response may be scored:

• Automatically correct or incorrect, as in an MCQ where there is an agreed correct answer. This also applies to short answer questions where the expected answer is limited to a few words. In this case, agreement has to be reached with regard to alternative wording and spelling that is acceptable.

• In a constructed response question, by an examiner based on a holistic impression of the student’s response, or with an assigned structured marking scheme.

• In the context of the answers to the questions provided by members of a panel of experts. This is the strategy used in the script concordance test as described below.

Standard setting

The subject of standard setting was introduced in the previous chapter. A range of methods have been used in a written examination to determine the mark above which students will pass the examination and below which they will fail (Bandaranayake 2008).

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