Online examinations, commonly known as electronic examinations (e-exams), are becoming increasingly implemented in higher education institutions in Palestine. However, learners' perspectives on these exams remain unexplored. This study therefore examines learners' perceptions of the online examination practices at Palestine Technical…

One of the main challenges higher educational institutions encounter amid the recent COVID-19 crisis is transferring assessment approaches from the traditional face-to-face form to the online Emergency Remote Teaching approach. A set of language assessment principles, practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback, which can be…

David Thissen, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Quantitative Program at the University of North Carolina, has consulted and served on technical advisory committees for assessment programs that use item response theory (IRT) over the past couple decades. He has come to the conclusion that there are usually two purposes…

Online learning has been rapidly developing in the last decade. However, there is very little literature available about the actual adoption of online synchronous assessment approaches and any guidelines for effective assessment design and implementation. This paper aims at designing and evaluating the possibility of applying online synchronous…

The article "Thinking About Linking" by Newton (2010) presents a novel philosophical perspective on the way that educational assessments should be linked. Newton starts by describing the linking framework as it was characterized in various publications and identifies a cross-cultural dimension in the definitions and uses of test…

Distance Education has globally become one of the important solutions for increasing admission into the universities, decongesting campuses and efficient utilization of time and space. To ensure the sustainability of the programmes' noble objectives calls for periodic re-evaluation of its modus operandi including the assessment of the perception…

Looks at errors made in assessment by teachers and makes a plea for adequate programs of training in assessment for teachers and for a greater understanding of assessment issues among students and the wider community. (Author/JOW)

The authors provide information about test construction and testing practices in order to help parents and teachers to ask important and critical questions about them. Issues pertinent to the appropriate selection, use, and interpretation of tests are presented. (Author/CL)

Specifying and writing appropriate items for student writing assessments is an exacting task. All too frequently, however, teachers approach this task by reading a skill statement and hurriedly writing a few items with correct answers combined with several distractors. This approach disregards the essentials of isolating a single skill for…

A key part of President Bush's America 2000 strategy for achieving national education goals involves developing national standards for five core subjects and a new voluntary nationwide examination system. The New Standards Project envisions a new generation of student assessments that require performance tasks instead of "multiple guess"…

Present schooling culture reflected in narrowly conceived testing, grouping, and grading programs discourages the kind of sustained, collaborative inquiry that should characterize America's schools. Assessment programs must change to promote instruction systems that encourage student initiative and perseverance to pursue unanswered questions.…

Arguments for and against the use of an oral examination as part of the evaluation process are reviewed and found to rely on the experience of practitioners rather than on empirical research. Several alternatives to the traditional oral examination are discussed as ways to increase the validity of educational evaluations. (AA)

Discusses (1) perspectives from which standardized test developers, users, and interpreters must consider test results; (2) test components that affect student test performance; (3) test abuses that contribute to the shortening of tests; and (4) how educators can effect a change in the increased reliance on standardized tests. (HTH)

This article identifies language issues confounding the assessment of deaf students' English writing competence. Possible alternate methods of test administration are explored, and direction for future test development is offered. (Author/DB)

Computer-based assessments are becoming more commonplace, perhaps as a necessity for faculty to cope with large class sizes. These tests often occur in large computer testing venues in which test security may be compromised. In an attempt to limit the likelihood of cheating in such venues, randomised presentation of items is automatically…