Computer Assisted Versus Traditional Testing: Statistical Assessment of Students' Performance in Different Types of Tests

Abstract

Computer technologies have opened up new possibilities for optimizing the administration of tests, test development and assessment. Computer Aided/Assisted Testing, as well as Computer Assisted Language Testing, have brought many positive aspects that can be applied in order to create a more positive attitude toward test assessment, to reduce item exposure and subsequent security risks, and provide a valid and reliable measurement of students' competence. Nowadays, teachers have a choice between supervised or unsupervised e-tests, and quite often they vote for unsupervised tests as these tests allow frequent testing of many students with fewer teaching staff, and give each student the significant freedom of choosing the time, place and manner in which to take the test. Teachers who prefer classical methods of teaching insist on paper-and-pen tests. The authors describe their experience with all of the above mentioned types of tests, and then focus on their research dealing with long-term observation of students' results and statistical assessment of their performance in English language. In this article, students' results of e-test tests and paper-and-pen tests (supervised and unsupervised) are compared in order to find any relationships among them, and to find an optimal proportion among various types of tests. Applied statistics have been applied to gain valid data when analysing different types of tests and comparing the results of these tests. Parametric and non-parametric statistical tests of the hypothesis regarding these relationships are described in the last part of this article.