Heriot-Watt Mathematics Report Series
HWM02-46, 23 Jan 2003

Assessing ICT Assessment in Mathematics

G R McGuire and M A Youngson

Abstract

The growth in ICT assessment in recent years means that it is now being carefully examined for its possible use by public examination boards [1, Harding and Raikes]. If ICT assessment is to become a significant part of examinations for an ever increasing number of people, both candidates sitting ICT examinations and those using the results as some measure of the candidate’s achievements or ability will wish to be reassured that ICT examinations and results are somehow comparable with those from the more traditional examinations taken on paper. The most obvious first question that could be asked is whether it is possible to take a paper-based examination and set and mark exactly the same examination by computer. At the present time, the examinations which come closest to satisfying these criteria are those containing multiple choice questions and there have been several studies of comparisons between performance in multiple choice type examinations, for example, [2, Lee and Weerakoon]. However most mathematics examinations do not contain multiple choice questions and typically a question in a paper-based examination would require the candidate to do some computations to obtain an answer which is a mathematical expression. Conversion of this question into an ICT examination may require rewording to fit the computer assessment package, and the marking process may be different. Therefore at present the answer to the obvious first question is no. Nevertheless if this question is modified to ask if it is possible to compare assessment by computer and assessment on paper it is possible to make some progress on answering this revised question. This article shows that at least in part it how this revised question for mathematics examinations can be tackled and it also gives a summary of some results that have been found in exploring the answer to this question. The CUE assessment package was used for the ICT examinations [3, Beevers]

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