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Performance Based Testing: Can a Web-Based, Simulated Environment Asesment Tool Measure Student Ability in Aplication Software Programs?
Abstract
The College of Business Administration (CBA) offers a comprehensive business computer literacy and application software skills course. This MIS 110 course is required for our Business Administration (BBA) degree. The course covers hardware, the information processing cycle, ethical computing practices, and problem solving using popular business application software. The applications covered include Excel, Access, Word, and PowerPoint. Eighty percent of the course is focused on using the computer as a tool to solve business problems. Developing intermediate-level application software skills is an important course goal for two reasons. First, the course is a prerequisite for other upper-division BBA required courses. As computing topics and software usage in these other courses becomes more extensive and required tasks more complex; a higher prerequisite knowledge and problem-solving skill level is mandatory for success. Second, CBA faculty members believe that businesses hiring BBA graduates place high value on computing skills proficiency. Our University is an open enrollment institution and MIS 110 faculty members have witnessed increasing diversity of incoming student skill levels. To help identify students needing a more introductory course, we have investigated using simulated environment assessment programs such as SAM, SimNet, and TAIT for course placement purposes. We believe that to use a tool as a means to measure performance, there must be an established correlation between the tool’s outcome, or student score, and actual performance. (Witnah, 2004) Performance-based testing (PBT) methods which “show us what you know by showing us what you can do,” are how we prefer to approach skills measurement in this course.
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