Developing Computerized Adaptive Testing: An Experimental Research on Assessing the Mathematical Ability of 10 Graders (Vietnam K12 Education Program)

Abstract

Computerized Adaptive Testing - CAT is a form of assessment test which requires fewer test questions to arrive at precise measurements of examinees' ability. One of the core technical components in building a CAT is mathematical algorithms which estimate examinee's ability and select the most appropriate test questions for those estimates. Those mathematical algorithms serve as a locomotive in operating the system of adaptive multiple-choice questions on computers. Our research aims to develop essential mathematical algorithms to a computerised system of adaptive multiple-choice tests. We also build a question bank of 500 multiple-choice questions standardised by IRT theory with the difficulty level follows the normal distribution satisfying Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, to measure the mathematical ability of students in grade 10. The initial outcome of our experiment of the question bank shows: the question bank satisfies the requirements from a psychometric model and the constructed mathematical algorithms meets the criteria to apply in computerised adaptive testing.