Advantages and Improvements of Computer Testing

Advantages and Improvements of Computer Testing Marija Krznarić, Stipe Predanić, Mirjana Milotić-Pejnović Polytechnic of Zagreb Department of Electrical Engineering Konavoska 2, Zagreb, Croatia Phone: 01 5595 347 Fax: 01 36 65 011, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The Bologna Process, whose implementation started in the academic year 2005/2006, in spite of numerous problems and difficulties has been showing its advantages and improvements when English as a second language examination process is concerned. Frequent testing of the students' knowledge has shown considerable increase of their abilities as well as the increase of their interest for laboratory testing and computer aided learning. Since computer testing shortens the time necessary for correcting the examination papers, it is possible for the teachers to introduce some additional laboratory tests concerning English language for special purposes, e.g. vocabulary, terminology, definitions etc. and at the same time create some new types of tests. Compared to other software currently available, our program enables the teacher to give students the questions which may have several possible answers. Safety of the tests and statistics has also been improved. Key words: new software, improved testing, statistics

I. INTRODUCTION The Bologna Declaration or more precisely the Bologna Process is certainly one of most often mentioned notions today, not only in the university circles. The Bologna Process, which officially started with Bologna Declaration on June 19, 1999, actually stems from a large variety of documents and declarations such as Magna Carta Universitatum (1988), which gives the principle of founding, constituting and acting of the Universities, the Lisbon Declaration, Sorbonne Declaration, Bologna Declaration, Salamanca Convention, Prague and Berlin Communiqué, and finally the Bergen Conference in Norway in 2005. Based on the idea of the Bologna Declaration, European ministers are required to establish European Higher Education Area all over the world. Once European Higher Education System is established, academic degree standards and quality assurance standards become more comparable and compatible throughout Europe; desired synergetic effect can be realized, increasing desired ability in both economic and in cultural domain of the Area. The Bologna Declaration initiated a series of reforms needed to make European Higher Education more compatible and comparable, more attractive and competitive not only for Europeans but for students from other countries as well. A compatible Higher education

System will allow students to choose from a wide and transparent range of high quality courses and benefit from smooth recognition procedures. By 2010, the year in which the Bologna Process aims to create a European Higher Education Area, the following should be realized: 1 the system of easy understandable and comparable titles, 2 the system with two main cycles, i.e. undergraduate and postgraduate, 3 the Credit system – European Credit Transfer System or ECTS, 4 promoting of the mobility of the students, lecturers, scientific collaborators and administrative personnel, 5 improving the European Collaboration, assuring the quality and developing comparable criteria 6 promoting the European Dimensions in higher education The Prague Communiqué added two more elements important for higher education. These are: 1 lifelong learning 2 including students in all segments of academic life Since a three-year bachelor degree (180 ECTS) should give a student broad professional basic knowledge and competencies, his or her mobility and later on employability depends greatly upon and relies on cross-disciplinary qualifications. Along with these indispensable cross-disciplinary qualifications and competences, regardless of the profile of each study course or higher education institution, in most EU countries compulsory knowledge of one or more foreign languages is required. Discussing the Bologna Process with the special accent on employability of graduates, UNICE (Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederation of Europe, in 2007 renamed BUSINESSEUROPE) emphasizes that a bachelor should have: - an appropriate level of verbal and written articulacy in the national language - an appropriate level of verbal and written articulacy in at least one foreign language (preferably English for non-native speakers) - ability to work in a team, etc. Therefore, future success in the global economy, both at an individual and national level, is very much dependent on encouraging language learning at schools and in higher education area. Learning a foreign language is a key element of cross cultural communication. It not only allows for dialogue in

another’s tongue but also gives an insight into foreign cultures, promoting understanding and mutual respect. Having all this in mind, it is an imperative for Croatian graduates to have a fluent foreign language competence, in both the oral and the written language. They should also master the particular language of their specialty. Since computer skills are compulsory for all university graduates, the software for learning and testing English in a computer laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering has been improved and new types of drills and tests have been prepared for students. II. LABORATORY TESTING EXPERIENCE This paper deals with the new software and describes its advantages and improvements achieved in computer testing. Moreover, engaging computer science education and new teaching techniques have become more attractive to students because the computer has become an indispensable device in their lives. The idea of engaging computers reflects our common desire to create computer science education that engages our students and facilitates learning. In these challenging times, we need to reflect on how we interest students, how we retain students, how we make our students globally competitive, and how we lead students to succeed in the interdisciplinary settings of future professionals. When the first computer laboratory was opened in the Department of Electrical Engineering in the early 90ties, it was used for electrical engineering technical courses in the first place. After the initial fascination with the new equipment and its possibilities, teachers started to try using the laboratory for their teaching courses as well. Even before the Bologna Process, with its requirement for frequent testing, was implemented, language teachers used to take students to the computer laboratory and show them how to test their knowledge by means of the Internet quizzes, drills and tests. Although the above type of learning was quite useful, the idea of making our own tests became more and more challenging, particularly when the comparison between English and Croatian language was considered. The Internet quizzes are meant for universal use without pointing out English-Croatian differences and peculiarities. Let us just mention the number of tenses in English compared to the tenses in Croatian, the Sequence of tenses being an important issue in English while almost non-existing in Croatian, etc. The first tests were written and tried in the lab but the technical implementation was not satisfactory. The next series was better but considerable improvement was achieved when the first program was created by one of our graduate students [1], while several new ideas have been introduced and realized recently. This paper deals with the new software and describes its advantages and improvements achieved in computer testing. And finally, students’ interest is increased, their success and scores are better. The interest of sharing new ideas for computer laboratory testing among other teachers resulted in fresh, new and challenging suggestions for developing, implementing and/or

evaluating computing programs, curricula, and courses as well as other elements of teaching and pedagogy at all levels of instruction.

III. COMPUTER PROGRAM DESCRIPTION In order to ease the installation and usage of computer program designed for testing students’ competence in English, a program using web browser as a client graphical users interface (GUI) was created. Therefore, it was made in PHP scripting language interpreted in Apache web server. For storing student and test information MySQL database is used. PHP is a general usage scripting language originally intended for rapid Web development. As such, it was used to create tests which are viewable with standard web browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. For running the software, one computer is needed. Web server was successfully installed onto a USB disk and after setting the program and data an option of mobility, without the need for special software installed on control PC was obtained. The number of client users is unlimited, at least as long as the disk is not full. Four types of tests are developed: 'supply the correct verbal forms' where students have to fill in the gaps with correct answers [1]; 'fill in the term' where students have to give the correct answer to a question; ’scrambled sentences' where students have to choose the right combination of words in the sentence; and 'multiple choice' where students choose the correct answers between two or more possibilities. Security of the tests has several mechanisms, i.e. randomization in the order of questions and time limitation. To disable possible attacks and cheating, every test has a generated unique key which is created using an IP address of the computer used, time stamp and an additional secret pass phrase defined by the administrator. Tests which have a wrong key are automatically discarded.

IV. DIFFERENT TEST EXAMPLES There are three tests which have been used during winter term in the Department of Electrical Engineering:

For safety reasons, e.g. power cut off, students have an option to save current answers (the key “save”). Saved answers are then, if needed, given back to students to finish the test. When students finish the test, they press the button Finish which opens the next page showing them their score, i.e. filled in answers; total number of answers; correct and incorrect answers and percentage of correct answers. Of course, teachers have options to see the tests and students’ results. If a student objects to his/her score, the test can be printed and corrected if necessary. The option of checking the test guarantees the students and the teachers that the correction and the score are obtained by adequate and precise evaluation methods, i.e. either by the computer or the teacher’s evaluation.

V. CONCLUSION Testing students’ knowledge of the English language in the computer laboratory shows several advantages. In the first place, motivation is increased, students like computers and find learning in computer laboratories modern, up to date and dynamic. They also pay much more attention not only to giving the correct answers, but to writing correctly, i.e. they are focused on spelling, too. They know that the computer “does not forgive” either an apostrophe or a spelling mistake. Since the testing technique speeds up the process of examination, students with poor score are allowed to repeat their tests and achieve an adequate score eventually. Test results are obtained immediately, there is no need to wait until the teacher corrects the tests and publishes the results. Beside specific advantages of

computer based testing, the process fits well with modern student attitudes. The first term has just ended, so it is possible to compare the students’ assessment with the last year. Last year, apart from two tests written in the standard way, students were given only one test in the computer laboratory. It was important to test the conditions of the laboratory, to see the students’ reactions as well as the fulfillment and justification of the teachers’ expectations. Since the above issues gave positive answers, the next generation was given better conditions, i.e. students were given two tests and the possibility to repeat them if they were not good enough. Some of them even wanted to repeat their tests in order to increase the percentage and get better grades. They also asked for more drills in the laboratory but unfortunately, the computer laboratory is rarely available. Since the number of students in the Department of Electrical Engineering keeps increasing every academic year, the opportunity to test their knowledge in a fast and accurate manner is of the utmost importance. It enables teachers to follow the examination time without stress and possible mistakes due to a large amount of work after the tests are written, i.e. correcting them, counting mistakes, calculating percentage, etc. It is evident that students enrolling every year come from different secondary schools with an uneven level of knowledge and poor competence when foreign languages are concerned. In the future, it should be possible to test students in the computer laboratory right after enrolling in order to organize the groups for foreign languages according to the level of their knowledge, e.g. into intermediate, upper-intermediate and maybe even advanced courses. The lectures and exercises will then be in accordance with the acquired knowledge in the secondary school education, so a more individual approach to learning foreign languages will be achieved. Finally, a few Ifs. If there were more computer laboratories available not only for testing but for students’ practice as well, if computer laboratories had more PCs (according to the Bologna Process when the number of students in each group is concerned, 20 to 30 PCs would be fine), if there were more software experts available in every HE institution willing to create adequate programs, opportunities for students and their assessment would be better. As far as the importance of learning foreign languages for Croatian students, it is not necessary to point it out again. If the students from a small country like Croatia wish to meet the Bologna Process requirements when mobility and employability in EU or anywhere in the world is concerned, they must learn foreign languages. One at least. Two would be even better!

REFERENCES [1] M. Krznarić, S. Zentner Pilinsky, K. Petković, “How to Speed up the Bologna Examination Process”, MIPRO, Opatija, 2007 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_process#Effects [3] www.englishpage.com [4] http://a4esl.org [5] ECTS Users’ Guide, Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Brussels 2004