Journal Article: Classroom Versus Online Assessment

In their article Classroom Versus Online Assessment, Spivey and McMillan point out how much technology has changed education, and the number of resources available to teachers and students online. Among these resources are online classes and online assessments. According to the Spivey and McMillan (2014), there are several benefits to online assessment such as flexibility in testing times, randomization of questions and multiple-choice responses, opportunities for students to rework similar questions multiple times, multiple options for feedback, and the ability to provide hints. (p. 450)  However, the authors found little research attempting to correlate testing format, online or paper-and-pencil, to student effort or student achievement.

To study this question, Spivey and McMillan studied 174 students in an upper level finance course. All students were in various sections of the same course taught by the same instructor. Some sections were tested with traditional paper-and-pencil tests while other sections were assessed online. To gather data on student effort, the researchers observed how often students accessed online study resources. When analyzing their data, the researchers found that “on average, students who did well in other courses, did well in the class and students with higher GPAs put forth more study effort” (Spivey & McMillan, 2014, p. 453). Spivey and McMillan (2014) also found that “neither study efforts nor course performance was influenced by testing procedure” (p. 453). Because of the statistical insignificance of testing formats, the researchers encourage instructors to experiment online testing, as there are still advantages such as increased flexibility, convenience, and ability to provide immediate feedback.

I found this article very fascinating! I had not thought about student motivation as it relates to testing format prior to reading this study. As it turns out, one testing format did not encourage more student effort over another. However, I think Spivey and McMillan point out some other really great advantages to online assessment over traditional assessments. The biggest advantage to online testing that stands out to me is the ability to provide immediate feedback, and the variety of ways feedback can be given. Giving students timely feedback is so important to helping students grow, and better understand material. My ability to provide students with good feedback, quickly, has been an area that I am looking to improve on. Utilizing more online assessments with a built-in feedback feature is definitely something I should incorporate to my teaching. Currently, I use apps like Kahoot as a way to informally assess my students, and review material. However, this is where my use of online assessment stops. I will be looking for more ways to use online assessment in my classroom as a means to improve my ability to give students meaningful feedback.

Spivey, M. F., & McMillan, J. J. (2014). Classroom Versus Online Assessment. Journal Of Education For Business, 89(8), 450-456. doi:10.1080/08832323.2014.937676