Retrieval practice is a powerful way to promote long-term retention and meaningful learning. However, students do not frequently practice retrieval on their own, and when they do, they have difficulty evaluating the correctness of their responses and making effective study choices. To address these problems, we have developed a guided retrieval…

The English Language Institute (now the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies) at Victoria University of Wellington has a long history of corpus-based vocabulary research, especially after the arrival of the second director of the institute, H. V. George, and the appointment of Helen Barnard, whom George knew in India. George's…

We examined the validity of using Compass® test scores and high school grade point average (GPA) for placing students in first-year college courses and for identifying students at risk of not succeeding. Consistent with other research, the combination of high school GPA and Compass scores performed better than either measure used alone. Results…

Online education and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) have existed for years, but few general tools exist to help instructors create and evaluate lessons. Are these tools sufficient? Specifically, what elements do instructors want to see in online testing tools? This study asked instructors from various disciplines to identify and evaluate the…

Six Practice Tests for the iBT gives students plenty of practice as they prepare for the Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) or the new form of the institutional TOEFL (ITP). This new book/audio set contains a concise description of the TOEFL and the types of questions in each section, as well as six full-length tests that have not been published before.…

Multistage adaptive tests (MSTs) have gained increasing popularity in recent years. MST is a balanced compromise between linear test forms (i.e., paper-and-pencil testing and computer-based testing) and traditional item-level computer-adaptive testing (CAT). It combines the advantages of both. On one hand, MST is adaptive (and therefore more…

The screening and brief intervention modality of treatment for at-risk college drinking is becoming increasingly popular. A key to effective implementation is use of validated screening tools. Although the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) has been validated in adult samples and is often used with college students, research has not…

Successful administration of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) programs in educational settings requires that test security and item exposure control issues be taken seriously. Developing an item selection algorithm that strikes the right balance between test precision and level of item pool utilization is the key to successful implementation…

Background: Although on-demand testing is being increasingly used in many areas of assessment, it has not been adopted in high stakes examinations like the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and General Certificate of Education Advanced level (GCE A level) offered by awarding organisations (AOs) in the UK. One of the major issues…

This article addresses two unsolved measurement issues in dynamic problem solving (DPS) research: (a) unsystematic construction of DPS tests making a comparison of results obtained in different studies difficult and (b) use of time-intensive single tasks leading to severe reliability problems. To solve these issues, the MicroDYN approach is…

There is overwhelming evidence of genetic influence on cognition. The effect is seen in general cognitive ability, as well as in specific cognitive domains. A conventional assessment approach using face-to-face paper and pencil testing is difficult for large-scale studies. Computerized neurocognitive testing is a suitable alternative. A total of…

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is an international, non-profit educational organization. The Association's purpose is to advance the knowledge, theory, and quality of teaching and learning at all levels with information technology. The "EdMedia + Innovate Learning" conference took place in New York,…

[Slides] presented at the annual conference of the National Council on Measurement in Education, 2011, New Orleans.

The goal of the current study was to introduce a new stopping rule for computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The predicted standard error reduction (PSER) stopping rule uses the predictive posterior variance to determine the reduction in standard error that would result from the administration of additional items. The performance of the PSER was…

e-Learning plays an undoubtedly important role in today's education and assessment is one of the most essential parts of any instruction-based learning process. Assessment is a common way to evaluate a student's knowledge regarding the concepts related to learning objectives. In this paper, a new method for assessing the free text answers of…