Chapter 11: Implications of the Digital Ocean on Current and Future Assessment

Assessment is the activity of characterizing the knowledge, skills and attributes of learners (Mislevy, Steinberg, & Almond, 2002). To accomplish this, it is sometimes necessary to create an artificial environment and set of tasks that increase (or force) the likelihood of being able to observe a set of activities and sample them for inferential purposes. This is called a test. Cizek (2009) states the limits of tests: “A test is … only a sample of what a test-taker knows or can do. It is impossible or impractical to observe everything” (p. 64). In this common 20th century view, the cost of observation, data collection, storage, and analysis of data is often expensive and may require an intrusive overlay of testing demands on otherwise natural tasks (Popham, 2003). For example, while appropriate for some goals, the multiple choice item format was created to drive simplified and automated data collection and scoring, thereby linking the physical world of the student with the electronic world of computers and printers.