THE EXPERIENCE WITH COMPUTER-ADAPTIVE-TESTING IN MATHEMATICS

The paper deals with e-learning, the use of computers in the teaching and learning process, and in the assessment of university students. The presented study is based on a research sample of first year students of a technological institute and the basic university course of Mathematics I.

The paper presents and evaluates scores of the students in an electronic test which all students enrolled in the course have to take and which covers three most important areas of technical mathematics – Linear Algebra, Differential and Integral Calculus. To be able to perform an objective comparison and evaluation of the test scores, the study included three different groups of students in three consecutive years.

Apart from the statistical investigation of the scores, the paper also outlines the most difficult questions and the most frequent mistakes made by the students. The attention is also paid to ways to prevent random tips of the students when taking multiple choice tests considering the structure of the questions (the number of questions, their assignment), and the type of the questions (considering the support and the use of mathematical thinking).

Moreover, the paper discusses weak and strong aspects of electronic testing with focus on general problems of testing and specifics of the computer adaptive-testing of mathematics.