Computer based testing: the ball state experience

ABSTRACT

During the summer of 1999, Ball State University renovated space to construct a 24 station computer-based testing room for a pilot study with four faculty members. The idea for the testing lab came from faculty who instruct large classes. Based upon feedback from faculty and students, this project is a great success. CBT became available to all faculty fall 2000. In this presentation, we will focus on the following issues: Initial idea and buy-in by administrators. Finding the resources to create a new lab; The policies and procedures that govern the testing lab; Lab set up and staffing issues. We will share how the workstations were set up (technical details) in an attempt to curtail cheating. We will also touch on student lab assistant roles and the supervision of such a high profile facility; The home grown reservation and reporting program: This web based tool allows students to reserve a station for their test and produces utilization reports for management purposes; Advantages and challenges of the computer based testing environment. Audience; Lab coordinators/managers, any one involved in academic computing issues, or departmental computing would be a target audience for this presentation. In addition computing center directors or academic computing directors might be interested in how this project built a very positive bridge between our Computing Services and the academic departments (for once we made them happy.

INDEX TERMS

General Terms:
Management, Security, Standardization

Keywords:
computer based testing, testing lab