QuestionMark Perception for Windows: Advantages from Faculty and Student Perspectives

QuestionMark Perception for Windows: Advantages from faculty and student perspectives. QuestionMark software makes it easy for educators and trainers to write, administer and report assessments, tests, quizzes, exams and surveys using PCs, local area networks, the Internet and intranets. Delta College owns a site license for QuestionMark Perception for Windows. Several faculty members in the Nursing Division currently use the software exclusively for test design, delivery and assessment. Their tests are administered at various unmonitored PC labs supported by the college. This year, the same faculty requested that the college equip PCs inside the Academic Testing Center with the software. Their objective is to insure greater test security. As the administrator and manager of the center, we evaluated the software for possible use by our staff. Our review describes the software features and reports on the advantages and disadvantages as perceived by both faculty and students. The product QuestionMark Perception for Windows is a suite of three programs that allow users to create and administer tests, quizzes and surveys. Assessment may also be conducted through a variety of customizable reports. The three parts of the QuestionMark package consist of a program that is used to create a test bank of questions, software to assemble a unified set of questions from the test bank, and a server application that delivers the questions and grades, records the responses and provides feedback to the student. Access to the tests can be restricted with usernames and passwords. Date and time restrictions may also be imposed. Two, or preferably more, computers are required. One system should be restricted to test design, and the others designated for test delivery. The site license that Delta purchased allows faculty members to have their own copies of the test creation software. Students take the exams in designated computer labs at specified times. Nineteen different question types may be created through the Windows based software. These types range from simple True/False and Multiple Choice, to Essay Questions wherein the student may enter up to 30,000 characters of text. During the creation of the essay question, the user must define acceptable keywords or phrases. Computerized scoring is then processed based on the presence or absence of these keywords or phrases in the response. A userfriendly Question Wizard is an available option for creating basic questions. The Assessment Manager is used to design and collate a test, quiz or survey. The program offers a variety of options such as importing assessment items in ASCII file format, presenting test directions, selecting wallpaper backgrounds, inserting graphics for illustrative purposes, shuffling test choices and randomizing test questions. Feedback may be set to give students instantly an item, topic or test completion level. The Server program is run exclusively on the computer that acts as the Web server. It contains a security manager that defines who may take the tests. Users must therefore supply a list of student names or identification numbers. The program also defines the time window when the test will be available and how many times a student may take the test. Through the Report program, test answers are processed and stored. Answers may be stored in the Perception answer database. This report may then be accessed directly from the database using a Windows PC. With Perception for Windows, five different pre-formatted reports are available: . Score List - A list of results that may be copied and pasted into any Microsoft Office application . Survey Report - A graphical analysis of test answers . Assessment Overview - A statistical analysis of test scores . Question Statistic - A statistical analysis of responses to specific test questions . Coaching Report - A list of test questions and answers for a specific student. …