Why don’t more people embrace creative approaches to testing? Dr. David Foster, CEO & President has given this question some careful consideration throughout his career. Here are some of the possibilities he came up with…
In a blog post a few years back, I discussed how technology can solve some of the testing industry’s problems and suggested that as an industry, we haven’t yet introduced technology in a creative, effective way. The problems of the past still exist, and a personal review of a large sample of computerized exams built today reveals that 99% of them are simply paper-and-pencil tests that are administered on computers. We are living in the past, and it’s not doing us any favors.
Why don’t more people embrace creative approaches to testing? Why don’t we have more adaptive tests, an innovative method that has been around for over 30 years? Why are the vast majority of items used in tests still traditional multiple choice with four options and one correct answer? Why aren’t scores provided immediately after most tests? Why aren’t essays scored automatically and quickly instead of using raters? Why aren’t more tests given on-demand instead of within a few days every year? Why do we travel to a location to take a test rather than take it in our own home or office? Why does it take weeks or months to fix a compromised or broken exam? Why are we still suffering a growing number of security breaches?
I have given these questions careful consideration over the years, searching for answers. Here are some of the possibilities I have come up with (an incomplete list, I’m sure):
- “We need to stick with the standards.” Some people confuse traditional long-standing methods with standards. They would argue that as a testing standard, traditional multiple-choice questions cannot and should not ever change. Of course, multiple-choice testing is a method, not a standard…