E-Assessment Software: Best Practices to Improve Exams
e-Assessment software is a critical component in education and workforce assessment, managing and delivering exams via the internet. It requires a cloud-based platform that is designed specifically to build, deliver, manage, and validate exams that are either large-scale or high-stakes. It is a critical core-business tool for high-stakes professional and educational assessment programs, such as certification, licensure, or university admissions. There are many, many software products out in market that provide at least some functionality for online testing.
The biggest problem when you start shopping is that there is an incredible range in quality, though there are also other differentiators, such as some being made only to deliver pre-packaged employment skill tests rather than being for general usage. This article provides some tips on how to determine what level of e-assessment platform that you need.
Type of e-Assessment software
So how do you know what level of quality you need in an e-Assessment solution? It mostly depends on the stakes of your test, which governs the need for quality in the test itself, which then drives the need for a quality platform to build and deliver the test. This post helps you identify the types of functionality that set apart “real” online exam platforms, and you can evaluate which components are most critical for you once you go shopping.
This table depicts one way to think about what sort of solution you need.
| Non-professional level | Professional level | |
| Not dedicated to assessment | Systems that can do minimal assessment and are inexpensive, such as survey software (LimeSurvey, QuestionPro, etc.) | Related systems like LMS platforms that are high quality (Blackboard, Canvas); these have some assessment functionality but lack professional functionality like IRT, adaptive testing, and true item banking |
| Dedicated to assessment | Systems designed for assessment but without professional functionality; anybody can make a simple platform for MCQ exams etc. | Powerful systems designed for high-stakes exams, with professional functionality like IRT/CAT |
This post will discuss some of the “real” functionality that separates a true e-Assessment solution that is designed for assessment professionals, from the other 3 cells of the table.
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What is a professional e-Assessment solution, anyway?
An e-Assessment platform is much more than an exam module in a learning management system (LMS) or an inexpensive quiz/survey maker. A real online exam platform is designed for professionals, that is, someone whose entire job is to make assessments. A good comparison is a customer relationship management (CRM) system. That is a platform that is designed for use be people whose job is to manage customers, whether for existing customers or to manage the sales process. While it is entirely possible to use a spreadsheet to manage such things at a small scale, all organizations doing any sort of scale will leverage a true CRM like SalesForce or Zoho. You wouldn’t hire a team of professional sales experts and then have them waste hours each day in a spreadsheet; you would give them SalesForce to make them much more effective.
The same is true for online testing and assessment. If you are a teacher making math quizzes, then Microsoft Word might be sufficient. But there are many organizations that are doing a professional level of assessment, with dedicated staff. Some examples, by no means an exhaustive list:
- Professional credentialing: Certification and licensure exams that a person passes to work in a profession, such as chiropractors
- Employment: Evaluating job applicants to make sure they have relevant skills, ability, and experience
- Universities: Not for classroom assessments, but rather for topics like placement exams of all incoming students, or for nationwide admissions exams
- K-12 benchmark: If you are a government that tests all 8th graders at the end of the year, or a company that delivers millions of formative assessments
The traditional vs modern approach to e-Assessment
For starters, one important thing to consider is the approach that the exam software takes to assessment. Some of the aspects listed here are points in the detailed discussion below.
Goal 1: Item banking that makes your team more efficient
True item banking:
The platform should treat items as reusable objects that exist with persistent IDs and metadata. Learn more about item banking.
Configurability:
The platform should allow you to configure how items are scored and presented, such as font size, answer layout, and weighting.
Multimedia management:
Audio, video, and images should be stored in their own banks, with their own metadata fields, as reusable objects. If an image is in 7 questions, you should not have to upload 7 times… you upload once and the system tracks which items use it.
Statistics and other metadata:
All items should have many fields that are essential metadata: author name, date created, tests which use the item, content area, Bloom’s taxonomy, classical statistics, IRT parameters, and much more.
Custom fields:
You should be able to create any new metadata fields that you like.
Item review workflow:
Professionally built items will go through a review process, like Psychometric Review, English Editing, and Content Review. The platform should manage this, allowing you to assign items to people with due dates and email notifications.
Standard Setting:
The exam platform should include functionality to help you do standard setting like the modified-Angoff approach.
Automated item generation:
There should be functionality for automated item generation.
Powerful test assembly:
When you publish a test, there should be many options, including sections, navigation limits, paper vs online, scoring algorithms, instructional screens, score reports, etc. You should also have aids in psychometric aspects, such as a Test Information Function.
Equation Editor:
Many math exams need a professional equation editor to write the items, embedded in the item authoring.
Goal 2: Professional exam delivery with e-Assessment
Scheduling options:
Date ranges for availability, retake rules, alternate forms, passwords, etc. These are essential for maintaining the integrity of high stakes tests.
Item response theory:
Item response theory modern psychometric paradigm used by organizations dedicated to stronger assessment. It is far superior to the oversimplified, classical approach based on proportions and correlations.
Linear on the fly testing (LOFT):
Suppose you have a pool of 200 questions, and you want every student to get 50 randomly picked, but balanced so that there are 10 items from each of 5 content areas. This is known as linear-on-the-fly testing, and can greatly enhance the security and validity of the test.
Computerized adaptive testing:
This uses AI and machine learning to customize the test uniquely to every examinee. Adaptive testing is much more secure, more accurate, more engaging, and can reduce test length by 50-90%.
Tech-enhanced item types:
Drag and drop, audio/video, hotspot, fill-in-the-blank, etc.
Scalability:
Because most “real” exams will be doing thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of examinees, the online exam platform needs to be able to scale up.
Online essay marking:
The e-Assessment platform should have a module to score open-response items. Preferably with advanced options, like having multiple markers or anonymity.
Goal 3: Maintaining test integrity and security during e-Assessment
Delivery security options:
There should be choices for how to create/disseminate passcodes, set time/date windows, disallow movement back to previous sections, etc.
Lockdown browser:
An option to deliver with software that locks the computer while the examinee is in the test.
Remote proctoring:
There should be an option for remote (online) proctoring. This can be AI, record and review, or live.
Live proctoring:
There should be functionality that facilitates live human proctoring, such as in computer labs at a university. The system might have Proctor Codes or a site management module.
User roles and content access:
There should be various roles for users, as well as options to limit them by content. For example, limiting a Math teacher doing reviews to do nothing but review Math items.
Rescoring:
If items are compromised or challenged, you need functionality to easily remove them from scoring for an exam, and rescore all candidates
Live dashboard:
You should be able to see who is in the online exam, stop them if needed, and restart or re-register if needed.
Goal 4: Powerful reporting and exporting
Support for QTI:
You should be able to import and export items with QTI, as well as common formats like Word or Excel.
Psychometric analytics & data visualization:
You should be able to see reports on reliability, standard error of measurement, point-biserial item discriminations, and all the other statistics that a psychometrician needs. Sophisticated users will need things like item response theory.
Exporting of detailed raw files:
You should be able to easily export the examinee response matrix, item times, item comments, scores, and all other result data.
API connections:
You should have options to set up APIs to other platforms, like an LMS or CRM.
General Considerations
Ease-of-Use
As Albert Einstein said, Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. The best e-Assessment software is one that offers sophisticated solutions in a way that anyone can use. Power users should be able to leverage technology like adaptive testing, while there should also be simpler roles for item writers or reviewers.
Integrations
Your platform should integrate with learning management systems, job applicant tracking systems, certification management systems, or whatever other business operations software is important to you.
Support and Training
Does the platform have a detailed manual? Bank of tutorial videos? Email support from product experts? Training webinars?
OK, now how do I find an e-Assessment solution that fits my needs?
If you are out shopping, ask about the aspects in the list above. For sure, make sure to check the websites for documentation on these. There is a huge range out there, from free survey software up to multi-million dollar platforms.
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Nathan Thompson, PhD
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