Comparability of paper-and-pencil and computerbased testing for economic achievement among form six students: a case study
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Date
2008-12
Authors
Sidamparam, Balasubramaniam a/l
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Abstract
The following study compared three modes of testing in economic achievement
employing, namely, the conventional Paper-and Pencil, Computer Aided and Computer
Adaptive tests. These tests were conducted in two phases on a random sample of 124 Form Six
school students. The initial phase was the process of constructing research instruments while
the second phase involved validation of the instruments. The validation was applied to five
Economics tests, comprising, two versions ofPaper.;.and Pencil Tests (EPPT 1 & EPPT 2), two
versions of Computer-Aided Tests (ECADT 1 & ECADT 2) and a Computer Adaptive Test
(ECA n. The final selection of the items was subject to psychometric properties based on a
pilot test employing the Rasch ModeL The two versions of Economics Paper-and-Pencil Tests
developed for the study comprised 40 multiple-choice items guided by knowledge levels and
understanding of respondents applying the Bloom Taxonomy whereas content validation was
based on the Table of Test Specifications. All the items in ECADT 1 were constructed similar
to EPPT 1 except that the test was administered through the use of a computer. Likewise, all
the items in ECADT 2 were similar to EPPT 2. Prior to the creation of the Economic Computer
Adaptive Test an item bank containing a pool of questions was calibrated using all items from
the Paper-and Pencil Test utilising the WINSTEP Version 3.0 programme. This was followed
by a Computer Literacy Test developed to investigate whether computer skills, experiences and
knowledge levels affected test scores. The study found no score variations between Paper-and
Pencil Test and Computer-Aided Test (CADT) modes but differences were observed in the
Computer Adaptive Test mode. The Economics Computer Adaptive Test (ECA T) exhibited
lack of comparability of test scores with EPPT2 and ECADTl. Finally, the result from this
study indicates that computer literacy is not a factor which influences the test scores of test
modes. It can therefore be concluded that all the three modes of tests met the unidimensionality
assumption.
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Keywords
Paper-and-pencil , Economic achievement among , Form six students