A Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF) can provide students flexibility regarding when they take exams. By analyzing the data from the service that students used to schedule their exams, we can learn about student preferences and behaviors regarding their exam times. This paper explores the exam times that students choose, when students make and change their reservations, and the correlation between when students choose to take exams and their exam performance.Among our results, we find that students prefer to take exams in late afternoon/early evening towards the end of the exam period. In addition, we find that students frequently re-schedule when they take exams; 42% of reservations are later canceled/rescheduled. Finally, we find that there is a correlation between how early in the exam period a student takes an exam and their score on the exam.
His interests include (but are not limited to) joyful teaching, empirically-sound educational research, campus and online courses, computer science, unlocking the potential of underrepresented minorities, improving accessibility and creating novel methods that encourage new learning opportunities and foster vibrant learning communities.
In this work, we explore how a large-scale introduction of computer-based testing has impacted students and instructors. The College of Engineering at the University of Illinois has been operating a Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF) for four years now, and the CBTF has matured into a fixture of our College. In Fall 2017, the CBTF served 21 courses from seven different departments and over 6,000 unique students. Over 52,000 exams were proctored, including 3,500 final exams. This paper summarizes key findings from a collection of surveys completed by students and instructors. Most instructors report having positive experiences with the CBTF. A large majority report that, once the exam content is in place, they perceive reductions in the effort to run and grade exams and to handle exceptional situations. Instructors also like how the CBTF enables them to run small frequent tests, run second-chance exams, and test computational skills. The vast majority of the surveyed instructors plan to continue using the CBTF and think that it should be expanded. FIXME: Some highlights from our student surveys include: (1) students generally are more satisfied with CBTF exams relative to traditional paper exams (45% satisfied or very satisfied, vs. 17% dissatisfied or very dissatisfied), but this preference seems to vary by major, with computer science and electrical engineering majors even more strongly preferring the computerized exams, (2) students' favorite aspects of CBTF exams include the flexibility to schedule them at convenient times, that CBTF courses generally have more frequent, shorter tests, and the opportunities to take second chance exams, and (3) some students prefer the partial credit mechanism commonly used in traditional written exams, where credit is granted for work shown for incorrect answers.
Before joining UIUC she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Sanofi Oncology in Cambridge, MA. She earned a bachelor's degree in biological engineering from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia.
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