Abstract:

As a general rule, the university teacher plans the assessment tests of their subjects based on the contents and skills that he/she has to certify, but without having, in most cases, knowledge about whether one type of test or another benefits or harms one gender or another. Various studies warn that the type or duration of an assessment test can improve the performance of one gender or the other. For example, it has been shown that a longer duration of the exams brings greater results to women since they are able to endure performance for a longer time [1]. This article analyzes the grades reached by men and women in the two types of tests that are established in the evaluation of Statistics subjects taught in three different degrees offered by the Pablo de Olavide University for four academic courses. Specifically, the results in the problems tests, in the statistical exercises tests solved with the computer by using the IBM SPSS program, as well as the final grade obtained by 1127 students evaluated in the first call for the subjects under study are analyzed. The main objective is to research whether one type or another of evaluation test is associated with better results in a specific gender. After the analysis carried out, it is observed that, although the women get better results in all the types of tests in Statistics subjects in average, there are no significant statistical differences in terms of gender during the period studied. However, if only the results in the last year, with online teaching, are considered, there are significant differences in the average score between men and women in both evaluation tests, as well as in the final grade, with men obtaining significantly lower marks in this period. Fisher's exact test that studies the relationship between passing or not passing the SPSS test and gender, with online teaching, confirms the association between these two qualitative variables, so that the percentage of women who passes the test of SPSS is higher than men. Given that in general there do not seem to be differences in the results of the evaluation tests used, studying the aspects that prove a difference in the scores of all the tests according to gender, when teaching has been online, will be one of future research lines. To clarify if women have a greater capacity for concentration online, bigger responsibility when attending virtual classes or are more capable of assimilating the contents with the virtual tools used will be some of the points to be discussed in future research.

References:
[1] P. Balart, and M. Oosterveen. “Females show more sustained performance during test-taking than males,” Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 1, 1-11, 2019.

Keywords:

Assessment, gender, online teaching.