[RUME] On-line Placement tests

[Jered Wasburn-Moses]

Charles:

While not a placement exam, I reported at the Conference on RUME in (I think)
2002 some results of an online, multiple-choice spatial visualization test
administered to a cohort of undergraduate pre-service teachers (n reasonably
large, but I don't recall the precise number). 

The short version is that even in this case, where there were no significant
stakes, there was clear evidence of cheating. Most directly, we were able to
identify pairs of students with identical test responses who took the test at
the same time in the same computer lab. Further, if I recall correctly, all of
these pairs contained one student with suspicious results relative to the
paper-and-pencil pretest. We took these cases as fairly incontrovertible
instances of cheating.

We also were able to compare online results to paper-and-pencil pre-test
administrations, and found an unlikely number of students with score increases
more than two standard deviations above the mean. We took as another indicator
of cheating, though obviously for any one student it would be impossible to
make a case for cheating under these conditions.

Obviously, this scenario differs greatly from yours. I can think of plausible
explanations why cheating might be less likely in your scenario than in ours,
but I would remain skeptical. And, of course, you'll lack the kind of evidence
that we were able to collect to document cheating and probable cheating.

For what it's worth,
--Jered


--- Charles Schwartz <schwartz at rider.edu> wrote:

> 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
> 
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