Open education systems play a significant role in providing flexible and accessible learning opportunities to large student populations, independent of time and location. These systems achieve cost efficiency through the effective implementation of economies of scale, reducing unit costs as student numbers increase. However, decision-making in the…

The observed decline in academic performance among 15-year-old students, as reported by recent OECD-PISA surveys, alongside the democratisation of university admissions, points to a potential decrease in the marginal academic proficiency of incoming higher education students. Paradoxically, grades at the tertiary level have either remained stable…

Machine learning-based automatic scoring faces challenges with imbalanced student responses across scoring categories. To address this, we introduce a novel text data augmentation framework that leverages GPT-4, a generative large language model specifically tailored for imbalanced datasets in automatic scoring. Our experimental dataset consisted…

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the retrieval of information through testing can enhance long term memory. Data has been less clear concerning the utility of concept mapping as an alternative retrieval practice technique. The study described here extended that research by matching the time for different study conditions, by utilizing…

Previous research has shown that phonological awareness is one of the most important prerequisites for early reading. Monitoring its development requires reliable, easy-to-use instruments especially in the last years of kindergarten. The present study aims to explore the potential for assessing phonological awareness and some of its subskills…

A key consideration when giving any computerized adaptive test (CAT) is how much adaptation is present when the test is used in practice. This study introduces a new framework to measure the amount of adaptation of Rasch-based CATs based on looking at the differences between the selected item locations (Rasch item difficulty parameters) of the…

Item response theory provides various important advantages for exams carried out or to be carried out digitally. For computerized adaptive tests to be able to make valid and reliable predictions supported by IRT, good quality item pools should be used. This study examines how adaptive test applications vary in item pools which consist of items…

Errors in examination papers and other assessment instruments can compromise fairness. For example, a history question containing an incorrect historical date could be impossible for students to answer. Incorrect instructions at the start of an examination could lead students to answer the wrong number of questions. As there is little research on…

Adaptive tests are more efficient than fixed-length tests through the use of item response theory; adaptive tests also present students questions that are tailored to their proficiency level. Although the adaptive algorithm is straightforward, developing a multidimensional computer adaptive test (MCAT) measure is complex. Evidence-centered design…

Testing is an effective method to determine learning outcomes for knowledge and skills learning domains. The aim of this study was to examine the differences in test achievements among 50 Saudi female English major students at the College of Languages at Princess Nourah University in Riyadh. The tests were administered using two different methods:…

Demand for online courses continues to grow. To remain competitive, higher education institutions must accede to this demand while ensuring that academic rigor and integrity are maintained. The authors teach introductory Fundamentals of Financial and Managerial Accounting courses online. Previously, there was no proctoring of the exams. Prior…

We investigated three different approaches for quantifying individual change and reporting it back to persons: (a) the common change score, which is obtained by first computing scale scores from two consecutive measurements and then subtract these scores from one another, (b) the ad-hoc approach, which is similar to the former approach but uses…

This study introduces a new chi-square test statistic for testing the equality of response frequencies among distracters in multiple-choice tests. The formula uses the information from the number of correct answers and wrong answers, which becomes the basis of calculating the expected values of response frequencies per distracter. The method was…

Unproctored and teacher-proctored exams have been widely used to prevent cheating at many universities worldwide. However, no empirical studies have directly compared their effectiveness in promoting academic integrity in actual exams. To address this significant gap, in four preregistered field studies, we examined the effectiveness of…

This Perspective article expands on a working memory-dependent dual-process model, originally proposed by Zheng et al., to elucidate individual differences in the testing effect. This model posits that the testing effect comprises two processes: retrieval-attempt and post-retrieval re-encoding. We substantiate this model with empirical evidence…