Developments in On-Line Assessment — Experiences and Evaluation of Using TRIADS and its Potential for Assessment in Electrical Engineering

Abstract

The TRIADS engine is a powerful set of Authorware ProfessionalTM routines, which allow rapid and easy production of multimedia computer-delivered assessments through the use of question templates and proformas. TRIADS is currently being evaluated at 25 UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in 18 disciplines. Its potential use in electrical engineering is discussed. Introduction to the TRIADS projectUniversity teaching has changed over the past years: because of increased student numbers, an emphasis on quality provision, and to take advantage of new methods, for example courseware delivered by computer. Assessment, and its role in the learning-teaching process, has been similarly scrutinised so that assessment strategies and methods have also evolved. Computer-based assessment is a natural outcome of a need to process more assignments and provide more feedback to more students, while maintaining better records of student progress and outcomes.The TRIADS project evolved from an initial Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP)1 courseware collaboration, into a Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL)2-funded project to develop further and disseminate a computer-based assessment system already in use at the University of Derby. The principal partners in the collaboration are the University of Liverpool ( lead site), the University of Derby and the Open University. TRIADS is more than just the assessment software that forms the core of the system. The Open University had been using paper-based, machineread testing for 25 years and has considerable expertise in the curriculum context, design and analysis of objective tests. The TRIADS team has put emphasis on making explicit the academic decisions that have led to the incorporation of computer-based testing within a learning, teaching and assessment strategy. Further, the scheme encourages a careful specification of cover-

Using mobile and web‐based computerized tests to evaluate university students

“…Webassessor [16] is a commercial all-in-one platform to manage assessments. TRIADS [17] is a powerful set of authorware assessment routines developed by the University of Liverpool, Derby and the Open University. SIETTE [10] is a web-based system for adaptive test generation developed by Malaga University.…”