Catering for individual needs: A search for a better computerized assessment method

Catering for individual needs is a fundamental principle in education. The traditional method of using one common form of test to assess the performance of all individual examinees is inadequate in light of this principle. With the advancement of computer technology, constructing computerised test for each examinee is no longer an impossible mission. In this research, two computerised assessment methods were compared through a series of simulation studies. Their performances were evaluated in terms of the ability in catering for individual needs. The first method is stratified computerised random testing (SCRT) and the second method is computerised adaptive testing (CAT). Empirical results indicate that CAT is much better the SCRT in fulfilling the fundamental principle of catering for individual needs, by administering items with difficulties that match the ability of individual examinee. Copyright 2004 © Singapore Polytechnic.