Current issues in measurement and evaluation Online Assessment Test Bias Grading and Standardize Test Holistic Assessment

School Based Assessment Instrumentation in Assessment Test Validity and Reliability Item Response Theory versus Classical Test Theory Exam Oriented Test Anxiety

depended on the level of classroom anxiety. For students high in c l a s s r o o m anxiety, taking an online exam weakened the relationship between their testanxiety and poor exam performance, and reduced their test anxiety. For those lowin classroom anxiety, online testing appears to promote test anxiety, possiblyfrom the added procedure of logging in to WebCT and relying on the technologyto function properly, the extra responsibility of having to monitor themselves toavoid cheating or unfamiliarity with online testing.Interestingly, test anxiety and exam scores were not affected by prior experi-ence taking online exams, but we found that students who stated a preference for online testing were more likely to be high in classroom test anxiety. This mayindicate an avoidance response to classroom based exams. As such, online testingmay provide a way for high test anxious students to escape the classroom cuesthat have been conditioned to elicit test anxiety in the past. The fact that testanxiety experienced in the classroom and online are only moderately correlateds u g g e s t s t h a t t e s t a n x i e t y experienced in the classroom does not generalizestronglytoonlinetesting.Becausestudentscantaketheirex amvirtuallyanywherethey have a computer and internet c o n n e c t i o n , t h e y c a n t a k e t h e i r t e s t i n a n environment that is less likely to contain anxiety-provoking conditioned stimuli.On the other hand, taking the exam outside of the classroom context may alsoreduce the number of memory retrieval cues available to them and thereby offseta n y p e r f o r m a n c e g a i n s , i n a c c o r d a n c e w i t h t h e c o n t e x t - d e p e n d e n t m e m o r y effect (Godden & Baddeley, 1975).One of the hypothesized reasons for a potential reduction in test anxiety whiletaking exams online is the degree of control over the testing environment. As perceived control contributes greatly to the appraisal of stressful events (Lazarus,1999), giving students control over their test-taking environment, as well ascontrol over the timing of the exam, may be particularly helpful for students withhigh levels of test anxiety. With online testing, students can take the exam whenthey feel more prepared, or at least schedule their exam to avoid times that other m a j o r a s s i g n m e n t s m a y b e d u e . F u r t h e r m o r e , o n l i n e t e s t i n g a l l o w s s t u d e n t s t o t a k e their exam at a time of day that better coincides with their preferred sleep/wakecycle, resulting in better exam performance (Hartley & Nicholls, 2008).Because we followed standard practice in allowing students to take their examanytime during a window of availability instead of requiring them to take it at thesame time as students in the classroom, we do not know if the differences in testanxiety and performance are due to the increased flexibility of scheduling, or the actual online environment itself. Further research that controls for the timingwill help clarify which of these is more important.We should also note the potential disadvantages of online testing, includingthe possibility of hardware/software problems and an increased temptation tocheat in an unsupervised setting (Street, 2008). Indeed, 78% of our sample agreedto some extent that online testing increases the likelihood of students cheating.However, our study did not directly assess whether students cheated on either ONLINE AND CLASSROOM TEST ANXIETY / 169

formatoftheexam,whichwouldhavebeendifficultbecausethestudent responseswerenotanonymous.Althoughitisdifficulttoruleoutthepo s s i b i l i t y t h a t s t u d e n t s used the internet to look up test answers or collaborated with a fellow studentduring the online exam, we found nearly identical means, standard deviations,and grade distributions across examformats.Thus, if students did cheat, there wasno appreciable effect on their grades. Alternatively, students may have done more poorly online if it were not for the opportunity to cheat, resulting in performancecomparable to their classroom performance. Finally, students perceptions aboutcheating are probably exaggerated, as Engler, Landau, and Epstein (2008) notedthat students overestimate the likelihood of their peers cheating in relation tothe likelihood of themselves cheating.In conclusion, online testing is a two-edged sword that has potential benefitsfor some students, but negative consequences for others. The greatest benefitsa p p e a r t o b e for students who ordinarily experience high levels of negativeemotions during classroom examinations. To reduce u n p l e a s a n t e m o t i o n a l reactions and improve exam performance of certain students, instructors mayconsider giving students the option of online testing as an alternative to takingclassroom examinations. However, at the present, it appears that not all studentsare either ready or willing to embrace online testing with open arms. REFERENCES Alexander, M. W., Bartlett, J. E., Truell, A. D., & Ouwenga, K. (2001). Testing in acomputer technology course: An investigation of equivalency in performance betweenonline and paper and pencil methods. Journal of Career and Technical Education, 18 ,69-80. Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JCTE/v18n1/alexander.htmlA l l e n , I . E . , & S e a m a n,J.(2008). Stayingthecourse:OnlineeducationintheUnitedStates . Needham, MA: The Sloan Consortium. Retrieved from http://www.sloanc.org/ publications/survey/pdf/staying_the_course.pdf Engler, J. N., Landau, J. D., & Epstein, M. (2008). Keeping up with the Joneses: Students perceptions of academically dishonest behavior. Teaching of Psychology, 35 , 99-102.Godden, D. R., & Baddeley, A. D. (1975). Context-dependent memory in two naturalenvironments: On land and underwater. British Journal of Psychology, 66 , 325-331.Hartley, J., & Nicholls, L. (2008). Time of day, exam performance and new technology. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39 , 555-558. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00768.xHembree, R. (1988). Correlates, causes, effects, and treatment of test anxiety. Review of Educational Research, 58 , 47-77. doi: 10.3102/00346543058001047Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis

. New York: Springer.M a r s z a l e k , J . ( 2 0 0 7 ) . C o m p u t e r i z e d a d a p t i v e t e s t i n g a n d t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f f l o w i n examinees [Abstract]. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 67 , 2465. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2007-99001-021&site=ehost-livePaek, P. (2005). Recent trends in comparability studies . Pearson. Retrieved from fromhttp://www.pearsonedmeasurement.com/research/ research.htm 170 / STOWELL AND BENNETT Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in studentsself-regulated learning and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitativeresearch. Educational Psychologist, 37 , 91-105. Retrieved from http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=afh&an=6790645Powers, D. E. (2001). Test anxiety and test performance: Comparing paper-based andcomputer-adaptive versions of the graduate record examination (GRE) general test. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 24 , 249-273.Russell, M., Goldberg, A., & OConnor, K. (2003). Computer-based testing and validity:A look back into the future. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice,10 , 279-293. doi: 10.1080/0969594032000 148145Schult, C. A., & McIntosh, J. L. (2004). Employing computer-administered exams ingeneral psychology: Student anxiety and expectations. Teaching of Psychology, 31 ,209-211. doi: 10.1207/s15328023top3103_7Seipp, B. (1991). Anxiety and academic performance: Ameta-analysis offindings. Anxiety Research, 4 , 27-41. doi: doi:10.1080/08917779108248762Shermis, M. D., & Lombard, D. (1998). Effects of computer-based test administrationson test anxiety and performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 14 , 111-123. doi:10.1016/S0747-5632(97)00035-6Shermis, M. D., Mzumara, H. R., & Bublitz, S. T. (2001). On test and computer anxiety:Test performance under CAT and SAT conditions. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 24 , 57-75. doi: 10.2190/4809-38LD-EEUF-6GG7Street, J. E. (2008). Examining the validity of testing in an online learning environment[Abstract]. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 69(5-A) , 1750. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2008-99210-028&site=ehostliveW i s e , S . L . , B a r n e s , L . B . , H a r v e y , A . L . , & P l a k e , B . S . ( 1 9 8 9 ) . E f f e c t s o f c o m p u t e r a n x i e t y and computer experience on the computerbased achievement test performance of col-legestudents.

AppliedMeasurementinEducation,2 ,235.Retrievedfromhttp://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=alpha&AN=7365024&site=ehost-liveWise, S. L., Roos, L. L., Plake, B. S., & Nebelsick-Gullett, L. J. (1994). The relationship between examinee anxiety and preference for self-adapted testing. Applied Measure-ment in Education, 7 , 81-91. doi: 10.1207/s15324818ame0701_6Zeidner, M. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art . New York: Plenum Press. Direct reprint requests to:Dr. Jeffrey R. StowellDepartment of PsychologyEastern Illinois University1151 Physical SciencesCharleston, IL 61920e-mail: jrstowell@eiu.edu ONLINE AND CLASSROOM TEST ANXIETY / 171 Copyright of Journal of Educational Computing Research is the property of Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyrightholder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. of 12 Leave a Comment

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J. EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING RESEARCH, Vol. 42(2) 161-171, 2010 E F F E C T S O F O N L I N E T E S T I N G O N S T U D E N T E X A M PERFOR MANCEANDTESTANXIETY JEFFREY R. STOWELLDAN BENNETT Eastern Illinois University, Charleston ABSTRACT Increased use of course management software to administer course examsonline for face-to-face classes raises the question of how well test anxietyand other emotions generalize from the classroom to an online setting. Wehypothesized that administering regular course exams in an online formatwould reduce test anxiety experienced at the time of the exam and improveexam scores. We recruited 69 participants from a psychology course to takeclassroom- and online-delivered exams, using a counterbalanced crossover design. We found that students who normally experience high levels of testanxiety in the classroom had reduced test anxiety when taking online exams,while the reverse was true for those low in classroom anxiety. Furthermore,the relationship between test anxiety and exam performance was weaker inan online setting than in the classroom. We recommend that instructorsevaluate the potential impact of these findings when considering offeringexaminations online. Enrollment in online courses is increasing almost exponentially, with more than20% of all United States college students enrolled in at least one online course(Allen & Seaman, 2008). One outcome of this is that an increasing number of students are taking course exams online. Furthermore, instructors of traditionalface-to-face courses are turning to online testing because it is convenient for s c h e d u l i n g p u r p o s e s , s a v e s t i m e g r a d i n g , c o s t s l e s s t h a n p a p e r a n d p e n c i l exams, automatically enters grades (see Alexander, Bartlett, Truell, & Ouwenga, 161 2010, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.doi: 10.2190/EC.42.2.bhttp://baywood.com 2001), and potentially frees up class time if given in place of classroombasedtests. However, questions remain about how online testing affects performanceor emotional states during testing. For example, Do students perform as wello n o n l i n e e x a m s a s t h e y d o o n p a p e r a n d p e n c i l e x a m s ? Does test anxietyin the classroom generalize to taking exams o n l i n e ? a n d W h a t i n d i v i d u a l characteristics contribute to differences in performance and anxiety during onlineexaminations? These questions are important to address because online testingcould put some students at an unfair disadvantage.I n answer to the first question, Alexander et al. (2001) found that t h e r e was no significant difference in exam scores between those who took a busi-ness course exam online in a proctored setting and those who completed thee x a m i n t h e c l a s s r o o m . T h e y a l s o n o t e d t h a t t h e r e w a s n o i n f l u e n c e o f demographic factors (age, sex, and class standing) on exam performance relatedto testing condition. A review of research since 1993 confirms that, in mostcases, there is no difference in test scores

between paper and computer tests(Paek, 2005).Test anxiety is comprised of affective (physiological arousal, emotionality),cognitive (worry), and behavioral (procrastination, avoidance) components,w h i c h t o g e t h e r m a y i n t e r f e r e w i t h a p e r s o n s a c a d e m i c a c h i e v e m e n t ( s e e Hembree, 1988; Zeidner, 1998). The questions posed above about anxiety inonline settings and the role of individual characteristics have their theoreticalfoundation on the belief that anxiety associated with using a computer may add toanxiety experienced while taking a test, leading to further impaired performance(Schult & McIntosh, 2004).Two decades ago, neither computer experience nor computer anxiety wereshown to have a significant effect on performance on a computerized algebra test(Wise, Barnes, Harvey, & Plake, 1989). However, more recent studies suggestthat students who are comfortable writing on computer actually do better oncomputerized writing exams (for review see Russell, Goldberg, & OConnor,2003), suggesting that the effect of computer experience probably depends onthe specific context.Although many educators are implementing online testing for regular courseexams, most of the research on the effects of test anxiety in computerized settingsis confined to computerized- or selfadaptive testing situations (Marszalek, 2007;S h e r m i s & L o m b a r d , 1 9 9 8 ; S h e r m i s , M z u m a r a , & B u b l i t z , 2 0 0 1 ) . S i m i l a r to online exams, computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is administered on acomputer, but in CAT a computerized algorithm selects the difficulty of sub-sequent questions based on performance of the previous question. In self-adaptivetesting (SAT), the testtaker selects the level of difficulty of each subsequentquestion, or groups of questions. In both cases, these computerized test methodsdo not allow the test-taker to skip questions or return to previous questions,u n l i k e o n l i n e e x a m s a d m i n i s t e r e d t h r o u g h a t y p i c a l c o u r s e m a n a g e m e n t system (e.g., Blackboard, Moodle). Furthermore, online exams do not vary item 162 / STOWELL AND BENNETT difficulty based on prior performance. Because of these differences in exam procedures, it is difficult to generalize the findings on anxiety from CAT and SATtesting to other online exams.Other research on test anxiety has been limited by sample selection prob-lems. For example, participants taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) on p a p e r o r c o m p u t e r w e r e n o t randomly assigned to the different formats of the exam (Powers, 2001). Instead, participants could choose which formatto take. Thus, it is difficult to know if differences in anxiety were due tothe exam format or differences in the characteristics of the p a r t i c i p a n t s (i.e., students taking the online test may have greater experience taking com- puterized exams).I n a s t u d y o f o n l i n e t e s t a n x i e t y i n a m o r e n a t u r a l i s t i c s e t t i n g , S c h u l t a n d McIntosh (2004) compared the anxiety of students in psychology classes whoknew they would be taking online tests to students in other sections who expectedt o t a k e p a p e r t e s t s . T h e y f o u n d t h a t s i m p l y i m a g i n i n g t a k i n g a n o n l i n e t e s t produced more anxiety for those who were in the traditional testing sections thanthose in the online test sections, probably because it was a change from whatstudents in those

sections had expected. Unfortunately, exam performance acrosssections could not be tested because each of the different instructors createddifferent exams.In summary, research is lacking that specifically examines how students testanxiety and performance may differ when taking regular course exams in anonline versus traditional classroom setting. Our interest in this project arosefrom the experience of the first author who began administering online exams inhis introductory psychology class. At the end of the semester, students reportedf e e l i n g l e s s a n x i o u s a b o u t t a k i n g e x a m s o n l i n e t h a n i n t h e c l a s s r o o m . O n e explanation for the reduction in stress might be the greater control they had indeciding when and where to take the online exams. This explanation is consistentw i t h t h e finding that students high in math anxiety are more likely to p r e f e r forms of computerized testing that allow students greater control, such as SAT(Wise, Roos, Plake, & Nebelsick-Gullett, 1994). In contrast, another study thatm a n i p u l a t e d t h e a m o u n t o f c o n t r o l o v e r t h e l e v e l o f d i f f i c u l t y o f t e s t i t e m s found no significant difference in test anxiety between CAT and SAT conditions(Shermis et al., 2001).The purpose of this study was to empirically measure test anxiety and exam performance under two conditions: an online setting and in the regular classroom.To minimize bias from self-selection of participants, we chose to use a counter- balanced within-subjects design. Our hypothesis was that students would experi-ence less test anxiety when taking an online exam than when taking an exam inthe classroom because of the greater control over the testing situation. Second, because test anxiety is inversely related to exam performance (Seipp, 1991), we predicted that the decrease in test anxiety in an online setting would lead to higher exam performance. ONLINE AND CLASSROOM TEST ANXIETY / 163

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2 EFFECTS OF ONLINE TESTING ON STUDENT EXAM PERFORMANCE AND TEST ANXETY Download or Print 1,473 Reads Info and Rating Category: Uncategorized. Rating: Upload Date: 11/06/2010 Copyright: Attribution Non-commercial Tags: This document has no tags. Flag document for inapproriate content

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