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Opinion
Testing: No Longer a Contact Sport?
10/11/2007
Center for Academic Integrity, located at Clemson University.I've been aware of and watching the Internet-induced wave of anti-plagiarism technologies, brought about by software like Turnitin, with its resulting costs and intellectual property issues. It's interesting to note in that regard, that the first thing you currently see on the Turnitin home page is for something called the Digital Assessment Suite, which emphasizes "Improve Student Writing Skills."
In fact, seeing that and thinking about it kind of helps me turn the image I have of this to a slightly more favorable one. That is, this may be just one more aspect of the future in which we simply know so much more about so many more things that we have to change some of the ways we do things and that the tools to prevent "cheating"--oops, I meant the tools that assure "academic integrity"--can also be used to enhance the effectiveness of the learning process.
Last Monday, I and several of my colleagues here at the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) watched an Educause Learning Initiative Web seminar titled "Academic Analytics: A New Tool for a New Era," featuring John Campbell of Purdue University. It is already available as an archive, along with links to more, related information. To boil that event's content into a single sentence: The information we are now collecting from the widespread use of course management systems is becoming useful in unanticipated ways and can also be mashed up with information from other campus data collections in even more interesting and potentially useful ways.
Sure enough, in one of the best newspaper articles about the Penn State test center that I have read, there are more than hints of the relationship between places like this and the technology used and enhanced learning. One expert noted, "It's for faculty who like to give smarter tests, that go beyond paper and pencil." And, "Using computers for tests allows professors to include graphics, animation, and even sound files that aren't possible to include in paper exams." I don't think those are just words, I think they're harbingers of a whole new level of understanding and personalizing the learning process in higher education.
However, I still can't help but think that entering such a test-taking fortresses would feel the same to me as entering one of those convenience stores with iron bars and plexiglass turntables between the clerks and customers that I sometimes end up visiting when traveling. I'll have to work on getting over that, I guess.
About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society
for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.
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