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North Carolina Online Test of Computer Skills

Fall 2004 Feasibility Study Results (DRAFT)
Background

Review Results

The Online Test of Computer Skills Fall 2004 Trial involved a locally selected group of students at every school in the state containing eighth grade students. The 2004-05 Field Test Calendar (published 8/3/2004) indicated 10 students per school were to participate. During the administration of the trial, students accessed test items from a secure site on the Internet. Participants responded online by (1) performing requested tasks and by (2) selecting a multiple choice option using a mouse or keyboard.

The window for administration began on November 17th and ended on December 17th.

After the test administration was completed, administrators were asked to provide feedback through an online
survey.

Students used integrated NCDesk applications when responding to some test items. Source files for each of these item types were delivered to the student from the testing server. As a result, students did NOT need to be able to move between browser and software software windows during the administration. Also, students did NOT have to open files and the administrator did NOT have to match any files to forms.

It was sometimes impossible to make the entire test item or elements of the item visible on the computer monitor at one time. As a result, students may have needed to use the scroll bar to view the entire test question and four answer choices for some test items.

To prepare to successfully administer the fall trial the following steps should have taken place for each school system:

1. School district test coordinator sets up school administrator accounts on NCRegistration
2. School and/or district test coordinator registered participating students for the school on NCRegistration
3. School and/or district test coordinator scheduled administration sessions on NCRegistration indicating date and early morning, late morning, afternoon, and number of students per session.
4. School district test coordinator received test administration training from Regional Accountability Consultant
5. School district test coordinator trained school test coordinator(s)
6. School district test coordinator and/or school district technology coordinator performed or directed downloading and installing NCDesk software per instructions provided from http://cuacs8.mck.ncsu.edu/ncdesk
7. NCDesk was tested on each computer workstation intended for administration to see that it started, checked that components worked, and executed Verify Connection from NCDesk.
8. Students reviewed the Test Simulation or optionally viewed the movie/demo of the Test Simulation
9. Students did the Test Simulation a few days before the test
10. Students took the Fall 2004 Trial
11. Teachers/administrators finished the study by completing the survey

This file was modified on Wednesday, August 29, 2007; at 2:48:06 PM