scholarly journals Effect of remote online exam delivery on student experience and performance in applied knowledge tests

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Jaap ◽  
Avril Dewar ◽  
Colin Duncan ◽  
Karen Fairhurst ◽  
David Hope ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The use of remote online delivery of summative assessments has been underexplored in medical education. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all end of year applied knowledge multiple choice question (MCQ) tests at one UK medical school were switched from on campus to remote assessments. Methods We conducted an online survey of student experience with remote exam delivery and compared test performance in remote versus invigilated campus-based forms of similar assessments for Year 4 and 5 students across two academic years. Results Very few students experienced technical or practical problems in completing their exam remotely. Test anxiety was reduced for some students but increased for others. The majority of students preferred the traditional setting of invigilated exams in a computer lab, feeling this ensured an even playing field for all candidates. Mean score was higher for Year 4 students in the remotely-delivered versus campus-based form of the same exam (76.53% [SD 6.57] vs. 72.81% [6.64]; t438.38 = 5.94, p = 0.001; d = 0.56), whereas candidate performance was equivalent across both forms for Year 5 students. Conclusions Remote online MCQ exam delivery is an effective and generally acceptable approach to summative assessment, and could be used again in future without detriment to students if onsite delivery is not possible.

2020 ◽  
pp. 147572572097194
Author(s):  
Anton WJP den Boer ◽  
Peter PJL Verkoeijen ◽  
Anita EG Heijltjes

Cumulative assessment refers to interspersed testing in which each assessment covers all previous content and the mean assessments’ grade weighs in for the final exam grade. The effect of cumulative assessment on motivation and performance might differ between summative (i.e. assessment grades weigh in for the final exam grade) and formative (i.e. the assessments grades do not weigh in) variants. The present study explored this hypothesis in two field experiments in a higher education course (Exp 1: n = 102; Exp 2: n = 88). Each experiment used a single-factor, between-subjects design with type of cumulative assessment (i.e. summative vs formative) as independent variable and motivation (Exp 1: self-study time, topic interest, perceived competence; Exp 2: preparation time and self-efficacy) and performance (Exp 2: cumulative assessment performance; Exp1 and Exp2: final exam grade and delayed test performance) as dependent variables. The results of both experiments reinforced each other. In the summative condition, the final exam grade was higher than in the formative condition. However, when the summative assessments were discarded from the final grade, this difference disappeared. Also, in both experiments, the conditions did not differ on motivation measures. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.


Author(s):  
Frieder L. Schillinger ◽  
Jochen A. Mosbacher ◽  
Clemens Brunner ◽  
Stephan E. Vogel ◽  
Roland H. Grabner

AbstractThe inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students’ tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence. In this study, we compare different facets of test anxiety in predicting test performance. Seven hundred thirty university students filled out the German Test Anxiety Inventory after completing a battery of standardized tests assessing general intelligence and mathematical competencies. Multiple regressions revealed that interference and lack of confidence but not worry or arousal explained unique variance in students’ test performance. No evidence was found for a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance. The present results call for revisiting the role of worries in explaining the test anxiety-performance link and can help educators to identify students who are especially at risk of underperforming on tests.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Kelly Smith ◽  
R. Brazendale

Pasture persistence and performance, and associated issues such as black beetle, are of central concern to dairy farmers. The Pasture Renewal Survey 2010 aimed to better understand farmers' confidence in their ability to make informed decisions on their pasture renewal practices, their satisfaction with the success of this decision-making and the performance of their renewed pastures over time. In addition, the survey investigated their attitudes to information sources and what barriers they saw to improving pasture performance on farm. A postal and online survey elicited responses from 776 dairy farmers in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. The four main findings of the work were: 1. Farmers are more confident of their ability to make appropriate on-farm management decisions for renewed pasture than they are of their ability to choose appropriate cultivars and endophyte. 2. Farmers, while generally satisfied with their own success in renewing pasture, reported decreasing levels of satisfaction with renewed pastures over the 3 successive years following renewal. 3. Farmers do not rate information sources very highly in terms of their usefulness in relation to pasture renewal. 4. Weather-related issues and pest-related issues (particularly black beetle) were the most commonly identified barriers to improving pasture performance. Keywords: farmer confidence, farmer satisfaction, information sources, pasture renewal.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 699-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. MacIntyre ◽  
Ben Schnare ◽  
Jessica Ross

Learning the skills to be a musician requires an enormous amount of effort and dedication, a long-term process that requires sustained motivation. Motivation for music is complex, blending relatively intrinsic and extrinsic motives. The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivation of musicians by considering how different aspects of motivational features interact. An international sample of 188 musicians was obtained through the use of an online survey. Four scales drawn from Self-Determination Theory (intrinsic, identified, introjected, and extrinsic regulation) were utilized along with other motivational constructs, including motivational intensity, desire to learn, willingness to play, perceived competence, and musical self-esteem. To integrate the variables into a proposed model, a path analysis was conducted among the motivation variables. Results showed that the intrinsic motives are playing the major role in the maintenance of the motivational system, while extrinsic motives are less influential. Support was found for a feedback loop, whereby desire to learn feeds into increased effort at learning (i.e., motivational intensity), leading to the development of perceived competence, which is then reflected back into increasing desire to learn. Increases in these variables help to create a virtuous cycle of motivation for music learning and performance.


Languages ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Raili Hilden ◽  
Anne Dragemark Oscarson ◽  
Ali Yildirim ◽  
Birgitta Fröjdendahl

Summative assessments are an exercise of authority and something that pupils cannot easily appeal. The importance of teachers being able to assess their pupils correctly is consequently both a question of national equivalence and individual fairness. Therefore, summative assessment is a paramount theme in teacher education, and we aimed to investigate the perceptions and competence of student teachers regarding common summative assessment practices. The study was conducted at three universities, two in Sweden and one in Finland involving prospective language teachers responding to an online survey (N = 131). In addition, interviews were carried out with 20 Swedish and 6 Finnish student teachers. The analysis of the data indicates that student teachers value practices that enhance communication and collaboration as well as the curricular alignment of summative assessments. With respect to perceived competence, the respondents in general felt most confident with deploying traditional forms of summative assessment, while they were more uncertain about process evaluation and oral skills. Regarding significant differences in the participants’ perceptions of competence among the three universities, Finnish university students reported higher levels in all variables. However, room for improvement was found at all universities involved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Wendee White ◽  
Richard D Ingram

Increasingly, the taught postgraduate student experience is being recognised as a complex journey influenced by a multiplicity of interconnected factors that are institution-related, discipline specific, and socio-culturally informed. This emergent recognition of the complexity of being a TPG student underpinned the research study reported in this paper; well-being was conceptualised as central to the student experience and interconnected with five facets of the student journey. It was explored through the lens of emotion and as an independent variable. Guided by principles of pragmatism, the study followed an action research approach seeking the perceptions of TPG students engaged in academic study and in turn reports the findings relating to their student experience. This paper reports on findings from year 1 (2017-18 academic year) of a 3-year longitudinal study.  Data were collected in 2 phases using an online survey followed by focus group interviews and then underwent thematic analysis.  Our findings reinforce and further inform the understanding that the TPG student experience is uniquely complex. Through our exploration we have come to understand TPG student experience as an emotionally rich process influenced by three dimensions of the student journey, degree of connectedness; effectiveness of supports; and quality of communication, that elicit threat or challenge appraisals based on perceived demands and coping resources, triggering emotion responses that impact well-being, and learner engagement.  Keywords: taught postgraduate student experience, well-being, emotion, action research


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Mei Ge ◽  
Zhongping Deng ◽  
Jing He

<p>The purpose of this paper is empirically to examine two theoretical models in the context of social electronic commerce (s-commerce). The study tries to extend TAM and UTAUT model with trust to explain consumer behavior in the acceptance of s-commerce on WeChat platform which is the Chinese largest social platform. Through an online survey, 501 valid respondents were collected. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis was used to conduct the proposed model and hypothesis testing with TAM and UTAUT models. The results revealed that trust is the most significant factor affecting behavioral intention and the second significant factor is effort expectancy, then social influence and performance expectancy. The integration of trust factor into the UTAUT model best interprets the adoption of s-commerce among the pure TAM and UTAUT models and extended models with trust. It will provide guidance for marketers and professionals, especially in China.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsuya Takeuchi ◽  
Nami Kawaguchi ◽  
Naofumi Uesaka ◽  
Yukiko Tsujimoto

Abstract Binocular stereopsis is a higher-order visual function and is thought to play an important role in spatial cognition in everyday life and many occupational settings. Various stereotests are used clinically to evaluate binocular stereopsis, and the three-rods test is used to assess stereopsis in various occupations in Japan. It is known that there are factors such as monocular cues in various stereotests that make it difficult to accurately evaluate the stereoscopic function, but the existence of such factors in the three-rods test has not been clarified. Here, we show that practice effect and monocular cues exist in the conventional three-rods test and that we devised a modified three-rods test to address the monocular cues. In the conventional three-rods test, performance improved when multiple tests were performed in a short time under binocular condition, and performance was significantly better in the monocular condition compared to the blind condition, indicating the existence of practice effect and monocular cues, respectively. The modified three-rod test with a wider central rod excluded the effect of monocular cues and maintained binocular cues on test performance. Their results suggest that the three-rod test with the simple modification can be a useful method for testing stereoscopic functions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grazia Lang ◽  
Torsten Schlesinger ◽  
Markus Lamprecht ◽  
Kaisa Ruoranen ◽  
Christoffer Klenk ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify types of professionalization in Swiss national sport federations (NSFs) and analyze organizational characteristics associated with specific types of professionalization. Such types reveal common patterns among the increasingly complex organizational designs of NSFs and thus contribute to the understanding of professionalization in NSFs. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of all Swiss NSFs was conducted to identify types of professionalization in these organizations using hierarchical cluster analysis, based on a multi-dimensional framework of professionalization. Findings The analysis revealed four types of professionalization: formalized NSFs managed by paid staff, NSFs managed by volunteers and a few paid staff off the field, NSFs with differing formalization and paid staff on the field, and moderately formalized NSFs managed by volunteers. The types differ in terms of the NSFs’ organizational characteristics, in particular, size, financial resources, Olympic status, and performance. Originality/value Applying factor and cluster analysis is a new approach to analyzing professionalization in NSFs that makes uncovering distinctive organizational patterns among a large number of NSFs possible. These results lay the foundation for understanding the professionalization of NSFs, counseling NSFs on their organizational development, and conducting future research on the design types of sport organizations.


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