scholarly journals Introduction to the LIVECAT web-based computerized adaptive testing platform

Author(s):  
Dong Gi Seo ◽  
Jeongwook Choi

This study introduces LIVECAT, a web-based computerized adaptive testing platform. This platform provides many functions, including writing item content, managing an item bank, creating and administering a test, reporting test results, and providing information about a test and examinees. The LIVECAT provides examination administrators with an easy and flexible environment for composing and managing examinations. It is available at http://www.thecatkorea.com/. Several tools were used to program LIVECAT, as follows: operating system, Amazon Linux; web server, nginx 1.18; WAS, Apache Tomcat 8.5; database, Amazon RDMS – Maria DB; and languages, JAVA8, HTML5/CSS, Javascript, and jQuery. The LIVECAT platform can be used to implement several item response theory (IRT) models such as the Rasch and 1-,2-,3-parameter logistic models. The administrator can choose a specific model of test construction in LIVECAT. Multimedia data such as images, audio files, and movies can be uploaded to items in LIVECAT. Two scoring methods (maximum likelihood estimation and expected a posteriori) are available in LIVECAT and the maximum Fisher information item selection method is applied to every IRT model in LIVECAT. The LIVECAT platform showed equal or better performance compared with a conventional test platform. The LIVECAT platform enables users without psychometric expertise to easily implement and perform computerized adaptive testing at their institutions. The most recent LIVECAT version only provides a dichotomous item response model and the basic components of CAT. Shortly, LIVECAT will include advanced functions, such as a polytomous item response model with weighted likelihood estimation and content balancing.

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel O. Segall

This article presents an item response model for characterizing test-compromise that enables the estimation of item-preview and score-gain distributions observed in on-demand high-stakes testing programs. Model parameters and posterior distributions are estimated by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedures. Results of a simulation study suggest that when at least some of the items taken by a small sample of test takers are known to be secure (uncompromised), the procedure can provide useful summaries of test-compromise and its impact on test scores. The article includes discussions of operational use of the proposed procedure, possible model violations and extensions, and application to computerized adaptive testing.


2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Bolt ◽  
Allan S. Cohen ◽  
James A. Wollack

A mixture item response model is proposed for investigating individual differences in the selection of response categories in multiple-choice items. The model accounts for local dependence among response categories by assuming that examinees belong to discrete latent classes that have different propensities towards those responses. Varying response category propensities are captured by allowing the category intercept parameters in a nominal response model ( Bock, 1972 ) to assume different values across classes. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for the estimation of model parameters and classification of examinees is described. A real-data example illustrates how the model can be used to distinguish examinees that are disproportionately attracted to different types of distractors in a test of English usage. A simulation study evaluates item parameter recovery and classification accuracy in a hypothetical multiple-choice test designed to be diagnostic. Implications for test construction and the use of multiple-choice tests to perform cognitive diagnoses of item response patterns are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Luis Bazán ◽  
Márcia D. Branco ◽  
Heleno Bolfarine

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine O. Strunk

Increased spending and decreased student performance have been attributed in part to teachers' unions and to the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) they negotiate with school boards. However, only recently have researchers begun to examine impacts of specific aspects of CBAs on student and district outcomes. This article uses a unique measure of contract restrictiveness generated through the use of a partial independence item response model to examine the relationships between CBA strength and district spending on multiple areas and district-level student performance in California. I find that districts with more restrictive contracts have higher spending overall, but that this spending appears not to be driven by greater compensation for teachers but by greater expenditures on administrators' compensation and instruction-related spending. Although districts with stronger CBAs spend more overall and on these categories, they spend less on books and supplies and on school board–related expenditures. In addition, I find that contract restrictiveness is associated with lower average student performance, although not with decreased achievement growth.


1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 987-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Tenvergert ◽  
Johannes Kingma ◽  
Terry Taerum

MOKSCAL is a program for the Mokken (1971) scale analysis based on a nonparametric item response model that makes no assumptions about the functional form of the item trace lines. The only constraint the Mokken model puts on the trace lines is the assumption of double monotony; that is, the item trace lines must be nondecreasing and the lines are not allowed to cross. MOKSCAL provides three procedures of scaling: a search procedure, an evaluation of the whole set of items, and an extension of an existing scale. All procedures provide a coefficient of scalability for all items that meet the criteria of the Mokken model and an item coefficient of scalability of every item. A test of robustness of the found scale can be performed to analyze whether the scale is invariant across different subgroups or samples. This robustness test may serve as a goodness-of-fit test for the established scale. The program is written in FORTRAN 77 and is suitable for both mainframe and microcomputers.


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