computer based assessment of information technology …

International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences (IJRESS)

Available online at : http://euroasiapub.org

Vol. 7 Issue 1, January - 2017, pp. 150~158

ISSN(o): 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 6.939 | Thomson Reuters Researcher ID: L-5236-2015

International Journal of Research in Economics & Social Sciences

Email:- [email protected], http://www.euroasiapub.org

(An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journals.)

150

COMPUTER BASED ASSESSMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT SECONDARY LEVEL -

A PARADIGM SHIFT IN ICT ENABLED ASSESSMENT PRACTICE IN KERALA

REEMA C.P1,

Senior Research Fellow

Department of Education ,University of Calicut

Dr. BAIJU K. NATH 2,

Assistant Professor

Department of Education ,University of Calicut

Abstract

Keywords: Computer based assessment, IT school project, ICT enabled education, policy shift,

infrastructural facilities

IT@school is a project of Department of General Education, Government of Kerala set up in 2001, to

foster Information Technology (IT) education in schools and which on longer term would facilitate ICT

enabled education in State. The success of the project can be visualized by the conduct of IT practical

examination using specially designed software for about 4 million students. This attempt is first of its’

kind in world with so much vast deployment of Open Source Software. Kerala Government made IT as

a compulsory subject in school curriculum and provided schools across the state with computers and

broadband internet connection. Kerala is the first state to conduct compulsory IT theory and practical

examination as a part of secondary education. Though separate examinations for theory and practical

were conducted initially, both of these are combined and the assessment is fully turned out as computer

– based by 2012-13 academic year. In this background the investigators studied the problems and

prospects of computer based assessment at secondary level in the state of Kerala.

This paper tries to explore the policy shift from paper-pencil to computerized testing, the

advantages of the specific mode of assessment, problems faced for the successful conduct of

computerized assessment, and suggestions for the improvement of the assessment procedure.

Interview with teachers, pupils, and administrators was the major tool for the investigation. Quality in

performance of individual pupils can be ensured by adopting computer based assessment.

Infrastructural facilities are reported as a major constraint for timely conduct of computer based

assessment.

International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences (IJRESS) Vol. 7 Issue 1, January- 2017 ISSN(o): 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 6.939



(An open access scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly, and fully refereed journal)

151

Introduction

ICT is defined as, “the combination of Information Technology with other technological

modalities. ICT will be used, applied and integrated in activities of teaching, learning and

management on the basis of conceptual understanding and methods of informatics” (UNESCO,

2002).

According to UNESCO 2005, the teaching-learning perspective, ICT should support:-

Access to online resources that use a powerful combination of video text and graphics,

prepared by specialists in a centralized facility and delivered to individuals or groups by

technology

Provision for teacher to teach a whole class or part of a class, assisted by technology as

appropriate

Provision for all students to learn the same way or to choose the ways that suit their

individual learning styles, assisted by technology as appropriate

Access to individualized curriculum pathways, managed by technology

Allowing students to move independently between learning areas as necessary, managed

by technology

Large screen video display

Continuity to access to network resources away from school

Creative use of ICT makes it possible to unify knowledge rather than learning various

subjects discretely. The OECD report, ‘Learning to Change’ ICT in schools (2001) incorporates a

broad view of the knowledge society in outlining three primary rationales for the inclusion of ICT

in education, namely:

A pedagogical rationale :- The pedagogical rationale for ICT in teaching and learning is based

on the potential of ICT to increase the breadth and richness of children’s learning

A social rationale:- The social rationale for planning for ICT use in classrooms focuses on the

development of ICT competence, as an essential “life skill”, in the same way as literacy and

numeracy are currently viewed, thereby becoming both a requirement and a right.

An economic rationale:- The economic rationale focuses on the potential of schools to prepare

children to meet the perceived needs of the economy- present and future.

According to Barron and Orwig (1993), the prudent use of technology in education extends

the following benefits:

Multi-sensory education

Increased self-expression and active learning





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Co-operative learning

Communication skills

Multicultural education

Student motivation

According to National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), “Assessment is

integral to all areas of the curriculum and it encompasses the diverse aspects of learning: the

cognitive, the creative, the affective, the physical and the social”. According to Thelwall (2000),

computer based assessment is an effective learning tool. In their study, students liked the test

based on randomly generated objective type questions. Infact they practiced with mock tests,

studied additional materials and did well in the actual tests.

Technology can be used in the following ways to aid in assessment (Scheingold and

Frederiksen 2000)

Support students work in extended, authentic learning activities

Creating portable, accessible copies and replayable performances

Providing libraries of examples and interpretative tools

Expanding the community of participants

Publishing good work on the net.

The case study by Swastik school shows how technology is being used in student

assessment. Mails are sent to students asking them to try specific tests for which they get the

evaluation immediately. Software to evaluate essay type questions from the point of view of

language, content and structure are also available. These make the task of teachers easy as

otherwise a lot of time is spent on evaluation of students work. Teachers can then review the

evaluation done by the software.

IT@school Project

IT@school is the technology arm of the General Education Department of Government of

Kerala, which was set up in the year 2001 for fostering the state school population by imparting

the ICT enabled education from grass root level. Since its inception, the project has achieved

several milestones in implementing ICT enabled education in over 8000 schools in the state i.e., is

about 50 lakh students and 2 lakh teachers benefited from ICT enabled education as well as

enhancing the intellectual productivity of teachers and the curriculum comprehension of students.

The backbone of the project is its strong network of 160 master trainers and 5600 School IT Co-

coordinator (SICT) in the state, who are selected school teachers based on their interest in learning

and teaching ICT enabled education. The project functions on free software platform since it

provides the freedom to an individual to study, copy, modify and redistribute any content, a

process which would ultimately benefit the whole society.

The major activities of the project includes-





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Worlds largest deployment of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) based ICT education

Capacity building of the teaching and learning community

Infrastructure up gradation of schools under ICT scheme

Broadband internet connectivity to all schools in the state

Hardware clinics – first if the kind to repair damaged computers at schools

Unique scheme for electrification of classrooms to fuel ICT enabled education

ICT based content development for teachers and students

E-governance initiatives in General Education Department

School Wiki- to promote collaborative content development

EDUSAT initiatives in the state including ViCTERS educational channel

The success of the project can be visualized by the conduct of IT practical examination

using specially designed software for about 4 million students. The attempt is first of its kind on

the world with so much vast deployment of Open Source Software. Kerala Government made IT a

compulsory subject in school curriculum and provided schools across the state with computers

and broadband internet connection. Kerala is the first state to conduct compulsory IT theory and

practical examination as a part of secondary education. Though separate examinations for theory

and practical were conducted initially, both of these are combined and the assessment is fully

turned out as computer-based by 2012-2013 academic year.

ICT enabled teaching/learning materials

Pelgrum (2001) prescribed the following minimum skills in IT that students need to

acquire by the end of their school stream.

Operating a computer

Writing documents with a word processor

Making illustrations with graphical programs

Calculating with spreadsheet program

Writing simple programs

Sending, searching for and using electronic form of information

When ICT enabled teaching-learning was introduced in schools in 2001, windows

operating system was used. From 2005 onwards four main topics were taught to pupils using

LINUX operating system. They were

Office package ( Word processor)

Presentation software (Impress)

Excel (Spreadsheet)

Programming (BLASTIC)

Web creation (html) was also taught as apart of this.

From 2010 onwards LINUX was substituted with UBUNTU with versions getting updated





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and now currently it has reach about 11.04 versions. Now the shift has taken place from teaching

the basics of IT to ICT enabled education. ICT content has been developed for Physics, Chemistry,

and Mathematics etc. along with IT theory, video audio editing, office database etc.

ICT enabled teaching initiatives

IT syllabus, like that of any other subject, need to be designed keeping in view the

cognitive ability of the children and its ability to meet the demands of the changing world where

students will work and live (Keen 1992).The following are the lead ICT enabled teaching initiatives

in various subjects provided by it@school project at present.

Pheonix/Ktech lab being used for IT enabled Physics/Maths

Teachers trained to handle Pheonix equipment

More than 100 pieces of this equipment distributed in schools

ICT enabled tool entirely FOSS based

Dr.Geo being used for teaching Mathematics

Rasmol, Chemtool, Kalcium being used in for Chemistry

Klab being used to teach Physics

Customization of open software ICT tool to school curriculum

On hand training to teachers

Training modules being prepared and distributed

The main highlight of this package is that almost all important topics are covered in this

new method. But still certain subjects like language are ignored. Since all important topics are

covered it is useful to students because learning is made simple and interesting through IT. For

effective teaching-learning process, still changes are to be brought about.

Scheme of IT Examination

In the old scheme, duration of IT examination is about 45 minutes. Marks are assigned

through paper - pencil theory examination, CE and practical examination. The theory examination

is of 10 marks, CE of 10 marks and 20 marks for practical examination. There were 3 questions

carrying 4 marks each and one question carrying 6 marks from graphic software, and one from

spreadsheet carrying 2 marks. Thus the aggregate mark for IT was 40.

In the new scheme, which was introduced in 2012 -13 academic year, the duration of

examination is one and a half hours for a total of 50 marks, including 10 marks for theory, 10 marks

for CE and 30 marks for practical. Students need not write a paper-pencil test, instead theory

exams are computer based. There will be three sections in the theory part. The first section is of

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), second section of MCQ for which 2 correct responses are to be

entered, and in the last section 4 statements are to be given as answer for a single question.

Practical examination consists of 7 questions each carrying 4 marks, and 2 marks for worksheet.

In the new scheme of IT examination the procedure followed for entering into the





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examination software is that, first to enter a school code along with password. Then invigilator

has to login by entering a password and after that student has to put a tick mark against the

appropriate class and division. Instructions will appear in the screen subsequently followed by

loading of questions and students can start answering. Only after the completion of theory part, a

pupil can enter into practical examination.

Design

The investigation was designed to study the policy shift in the conduct of IT examination

in the state of Kerala. A Survey was conducted to gather relevant information, and document

analysis was done to get details of the test materials. Interview was conducted with pupils, SITCs,

teachers in charge and, head of the institution.

The main focus of the investigation was to study the problems and prospects of computer

based assessment at secondary level in Kerala. This paper tries to explore the policy shift from

paper-pencil test to computerized testing, the advantages of specific mode of assessment,

problems faced for successful conduct of computerized assessment and suggestions for the

improvement of the assessment procedure.

The investigation was conducted on representative samples selected from pupils, SITCs and

Head teachers. Students including boys and girls, selected from 5 districts, such as Kozhikode,

Malappuram , Wayanad, Palakkad and Alappuzha of the state of Kerala.

Interview was the main tool used for the investigation. Interview with pupils, SITCs, teachers

in charge and head of the schools were conducted. Questions were asked mainly on the following

14 dimensions. Preference of pupils towards method, time duration, difficulty level of questions,

no. of classes, physical problems, infrastructure facilities, power failure problems, working

condition of computers, malpractices, smart classroom facility, cooperation of subject teachers,

pattern of questions, number of questions and result trend.





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Analysis and Interpretation

TABLE 1

Pupils’ Preferences to IT facilities and Examination

Sl. No. Responses in %

Boys Girls Total

1. Scheme Old 10 33 20

New 90 67 80

2. Time Duration

Excess 27 44 35

Adequate 63 36 55

Less 10 20 10

3. Difficulty Level of Questions

Tough 9 9 10

Average 28 47 35

Easy 63 44 55

4. No. of Classes Satisfactory 91 78 85

Unsatisfactory 9 22 15

5. Physical Problems Yes 18 33 25

No 82 67 75

6. Infrastructure Average 92 100 90

Poor 18 0 10

7. Power failure

Frequently 36 33 30

Occasionally 46 45 55

Not at all 18 22 15

8. Working Condition of Computers Satisfactory 64 56 60

Unsatisfactory 36 44 40

9. Chances for malpractice Increased 9 9 10

Decreased 91 91 90

10. Smart classroom facility Available 91 77 80

Unavailable 9 33 20

11. Instruction of Subject Teacher Available 19 77 45

Unavailable 81 33 55

12. Preference for pattern of questions Old Method 9 9 10

New Method 91 91 90

13. No of Questions

Excess 37 22 30

Appropriate 54 45 50

Less 9 33 20

14. Improvement in Result

High 64 88 75

Average 18 12 15

Low 18 - - 10

Table 1 show that 80 percentage students prefer new scheme of examination. Only 10

percentage of pupils responded that the time duration is inadequate and questions were tough.





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Number of classes available was satisfactory to 85 percentages of the students. 25 percentage of

the students are prone to physical problems like head ache, irritation and pain to eye, etc.

Infrastructural facilities are reported as a major constraint for timely conduct of computer based

assessment. No school have optimum facilities for IT instruction as reported by pupils, about 10

percent of the schools have poor infrastructural facility. Almost 90 percentage of the students

agreed that chances for malpractices have decreased considerably in new scheme. Almost 80

percentage of the schools have smart classroom facility. Though the government has given

necessary orders only 45 percentage of subject teachers were taking IT. Ninety percentage of the

students preferred new pattern of questions. The number of questions is appropriate to 50

percentage respondents. Compared to previous years there is a high improvement in the result of

IT examination. The data obtained from SITCs and Head teachers were analyzed qualitatively.

Results and Discussion

On analyzing the results several advantages and disadvantages were found in new scheme

of IT examination.

The main advantage is that it evokes a paradigm shift from paper-pencil assessment to

computer-based assessment. Another important advantage is that the results improved, and

malpractice decreased. The frame of syllabus is appropriate for students. Almost all important

topics are being taught in new methods covering the whole syllabus and the learning is made more

interesting.

Infrastructural facilities are reported as a major constraint for timely conduct of computer-

based assessment. Lack of cooperation of subject teachers is another important issue. Absence of

teachers, public holidays etc. minimize the number of hours allotted to IT. Power failure is another

important barrier. Even though internet facility is available in most schools it is not properly

functioning. Absence of lab assistants is also a burden for SITCs. Although hardware clinics were

introduced, it is also a failure now because of the poor quality rendered and of economic crisis.

Even though smart classrooms are necessary and compulsory in schools, 90 % of schools lack

smart classrooms with optimum facilities. The main limitation includes duration of examination

(The curriculum committee now decided to reduce the duration to 1 hour by next year onwards).

It causes physical problems to students like neck pain, eye irritation etc. The cost of ICT hardware,

software and maintenance is still unaffordable to majority of schools.





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Conclusion

Today, as a result of various initiatives of IT@school project, every student studying in the

schools in the state enjoys the most of the educational facilities irrespective of his/her background.

According to Anwar Sadath, the former Executive Director of IT@school project, “ The

combination of the features of the integrated model followed by IT@school programme can be

summarized as integrating ICT with regular school processes investing in teacher capacity

building, moving beyond computer literacy to computer aided learning and use of FOSS platform”.

The present initiative of the computerized theory examination of IT can be considered as a

landmark, as it may proceeds to a complete computer based theory examination for all subjects,

having high degree of transparency and quality in near future.

References

Baron, A.E. and G.W. Orwig (1993). New Technologies for Education: A Beginners Guide ,

Eaglewood CO: Libraries Unlimited Inc.

Keen, P. ,1992, Developing an IT Education Plan, I/S Analyzer, Vol.30( 9)

Mohanty, L. and Vohra, N. (2006) ICT Strategies for Schools- A Guide for School Administrators,

New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2001), Schooling for Tomorrow:

Learning to Change: ICT in schools.

Pelgrum, W.J., 2010, Obstacles to the Integration of ICT in Education: Results from a Worldwide

Educational Assessment, Computers and Education, 37, 163-78

Sheingold, K., and Frederikson, J. (2000) , Using Technology to Support Innovative Assessment,

Jossey-Bass Reader on Technology and Learning, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass pp.320-37.

Thelwall, M.(2000), Computer Based Assessment: A Versatile Educational tool, Computers and

Education, 34, 37-49.

UNESCO, (2005), Information and Communication Technologies in Schools - A Handbook for

Teachers.

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