About the Evaluators
This website is the product of a collaborative effort made by four students of Educational Technology. The study of Educational Technology focuses on developing skills to help both teachers and students learn and improve performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.
Given an open assignment of 'Technology Promotion', the four students below chose to focus their efforts on the exploration of Online Testing Tools. Information concerning the appropriateness and possible motivational factors for the four, student authors can be found below:
Chris Daniels
I received my undergraduate education from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia where I graduated with two, Bachelor of Arts degrees; one in Psychology, and the other in Communication Studies/ Theater Arts. I am currently enrolled in the Educational Technology Masters program at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Upon completion of this degree, I plan to enroll in a Masters of Special Education program, specializing in emotional and behavior disorder.
My interest in technology, as a method for teaching, was sparked during an internship in a psychoeducational setting. I observed a classroom of students with emotional and behavior disorders. Technology was able to grasp and hold the attention of students who, in traditional classroom settings, were distracted, uninterested in the material, and exhibited poor social skills.
I plan to research the use of technology as a tool for implementing social behavior change in the classroom setting.
Personal Experience with Online Testing Tools:
As a student, my experience with online testing began in high-school. My class was one of the first affected by the "technology wave" in education. Students took advantage of online tests by tapping into the vast resources of the web while taking tests. Our focus was achieving the best grades at any cost, that is what got us in to the best schools and got our parents off our backs.
As an online test administrator I focused on first receiving opinions. I knew that facts could be looked up through any search engine. I enjoyed and saw the use of instant feedback online testing provided. Training in psychology there were many uses for surveys and tools which gave you testing statistics were of great value.
As an online testing tool evaluator, I still see the value of instant feedback provides. Diagnostic and formative assessment needs to be quick and not necessarily graded for correctness. These assessments are done to give the feedback teachers need to evaluate their lessons, making them perfect candidates for online testing. Summative assessment should not be hastily graded and requires reflection and evaluation, both on the part of the student and teacher and thus, in my mind, is not suited for online evaluation.
Learn more about Chris Daniels: http://cpdaniels.weebly.com
Erik Hill
I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science (through Interdisciplinary Studies) at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I am currently working on my Master's of Education in Educational Technology.
After a decade of computer programming for semi-conductor manufacture and military research, I followed my heart into the education field. Military research has always struck me as fundamentally counter-productive -- we, as a species, spend our resources combating each other, and of course, destroying each others resources! While my wallet may never forgive me for the career change, I see this as one of the best moves of my life.
Personal Experience with Online Testing Tools:
As a student, I have taken several hybrid online classes. In one, the teacher would always have to give tests in the brick-and-mortar part of the class. This was a single hour per week, and I think might have been better used for other purposes, but at the time, no useful online testing tools existed. In other online classes, there simply wouldn't be any tests at all, or they would be e-mails. The technology situation has improved over last few years.
As an online testing tool evaluator, I have evaluated two tools, EasyTestMaker and LimeSurvey. For LimeSurvey, I am in the process of installing my own server for more serious testing, although I am already impressed by this powerful tool. Administering tests to students and making sense of the results have become areas of interest to me, as I haven't seen an entirely satisfactory online testing tool, unfortunately including the excellent LimeSurvey. Luckily, it's open source, so anyone is allowed to improve it. I may make some changes myself.
Bill Morrison
I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I am currently working on my Master's of Education in Educational Technology.
I currently work as both a salaried and freelance web designer. I also teach continuing education, digital media classes. I specialize in the Adobe Creative Suite product line including; Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.
My classes range between 10-20, adult students. My student assessment is based on post class conversations and written evaluations. I feel that my ability to assess student leaning is insufficient. I am interested in adding tests at the end of my classes. While the test results will be informal for the student (no grade), the analyzed results may allow me to fill-in learning gaps by reshaping my classes.
Personal Experience with Online Testing Tools:
As a 38-year old student I have virtually no online test taking experience in fact, I have taken only one formal exam. I should note, that I have participated in many informal online polls and have had years of traditional (paper) test taking experience.
I have no experience, what so ever, as an online test administrator. I have given many traditional (paper) tests and have created my own test questions.
I have only personally explored one option as an online testing tool evaluator. At this point I can't confirm that I have any solid opinions concerning online test tools. I am enthused enough at this point to create and administer on online test, though not with the software I evaluated (specifically due to its pricing).
Huy Quang Pham
I was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English from Cantho University, Vietnam and then a Masters of Education in Educational Administration from University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I am currently a doctoral student in Education at the University of Hawai'i, specialization in Educational Administration.
Before coming to Hawai'i, I worked for the Human Resource Unit of the Dong Thap Province Department of Education in the south of Vietnam (my home). Most of my time was focused assisting upper secondary schools (grades 10-12). Dong Thap Province is roughly 1,300 square miles with a population of 1.6 million (2007) - there are currently 2,314 teachers in 40 upper secondary schools.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam proclaimed the school year 2008-2009 as the year of implementation and application of "instructional technology" into education (teaching, learning and administrating). MOET has spent a great deal of money on software, upgrading internet connections, and supplying computers to schools.
In Vietnam, PowerPoint is one of the most popular and widely used technologies implemented by teachers. I realize that PowerPoint is only one of a countless number of tools that can be applied to education. I am eager to discover and bring knowledge about useful educational technologies back to Vietnam.
Personal Experience with Online Testing Tools:
As a student I have had some opportunities to take online tests, such as, TOEFL, GRE, and University of Hawai'i midterms for ETEC 442 (Computers in Education), and ETEC 602 (Technologies in Teaching and Training); I also had chances to complete surveys of course evaluations, workshops, and research studies. These experiences have inspired me to explore tools and to design my own online tests.
As an online test administrator in comparison with composing a hard copy test, or a paper test, an online test took me a longer to complete designing an available one. However, I could go back to edit the test, copy or duplicate the test. Interestingly, I can analyze the results as soon as my students complete the test.
As an online testing tool evaluator, I believe that Google Form is one potential educational technology that supports and improves the work of teachers. I am very excited to explore Google Form to design an online test.
After I finished designing the test, I copied the link and sent it to another e-mail to check if it worked. Then, I clicked the link and took the test to see the result. Fantastically, responses from the test came to Google Doc with the name of the test and upon opening it i could see the responses to the test.
In order to grade the responses, I designed a separate answer sheet with functions which linked to the response sheet. Additionally, to analyze the collected data, I created a chart of which data were from the answer sheet. However, one of my disappointments while designing the online test was that I could not insert pictures into the test.