[RUME] On-line Placement tests

[Charles Schwartz]

The Orientation office at my university is proposing to move away 
from giving a paper and pencil test to incoming freshman students. 
One option they are pushing is for us to offer an on-line placement 
test.  A second option they are pushing is for us to rely on just the 
Math SAT score.

Currently:  new freshmen are placed into a freshman math class by the 
Math SAT scores and by our own in-house Math Skills Test.  If the 
Math SAT score is 550 or greater, then the Skills Test is waived, and 
Liberal Arts students may enroll in Finite Math (which serves as our 
Liberal Arts math class, and uses Mathematical Ideas by Miller, 
Hereen, Hornsby); or Business Majors may enroll in Quatitative Method 
for Business.  (Math and Science majors are a different category, and 
I'll skip over their placement.)

If the Math SAT score is under 550, we administer our Math Skills 
Test at a Testing session in May.  Students who pass our Skills Test 
may also enroll in Finite Math or Quantitative Methods, as 
appropriate, but student who fail must enroll in the course Math 
Skills Lab (if Liberal Arts) or Intro to Quantitative Methods (if 
Business).  Neither of these classes carries credit toward 
graduation, nor, in our opinion, should they, since they are remedial.

I'm reluctant to go to on-line testing, because I fear that (a) 
students might have a friend take the test for them or (b) students 
won't follow the rules we put in place.  Our rule is "no calculators" 
and many students resent this, but we think it is important for 
students at least to have minimal skills with arithmetic and algebra 
before entering these math classes.  It is my experience (as Chair, 
and previously, as Director of the Math Lab)  that many students 
would do whatever it takes to avoid taking the developmental, 
non-credit class (except study, that is).

I'm also reluctant to rely solely on the SAT score, because the SAT 
is testing at a higher level of understanding. ( There's also the 
calculator issue, but ...)

Does anyone have direct experience with online placement tests, and 
whether students abide by the rules?
Or anecdotal reports, or research on whether students who pass 
on-line tests are better or worse prepared than students who take 
paper-and-pencil tests?

-- 
Charles Schwartz, Ph. D.
Chair, Department of Mathematics
Rider University
2083 Lawrenceville Road
Lawrenceville, NJ  08648
Telephone:  (609)-896-5091
Fax:  (609)-895-5782
E-mail:  schwartz at rider.edu
Home page:  www1.rider.edu/~schwartz