Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-18-2019
Publication Title
Open Education Studies
Volume
1
Issue
1
First page number:
56
Last page number:
72
Abstract
When students respond rapidly to an item during an assessment, it suggests that they may have guessed. Guessing adds error to ability estimates. Treating rapid responses as incorrect answers increases the accuracy of ability estimates for timed high-stakes summative tests like the ACT. There are fewer reasons to guess rapidly in non-timed formative tests, like those used as part of many personalized learning systems. Data from approximately 75 thousand formative assessments, from 777 students at two northern California charter high schools, were analyzed. The accuracy of ability estimates is only slightly improved by treating responses made in less than five seconds as incorrect responses. Simulations show that the advantage is related to: whether guesses are made rapidly, the amount of time required for thoughtful responses, the number of response alternatives, and the preponderance of guessing. An R function is presented to implement this procedure. Consequences of using this procedure are discussed.
Keywords
Response times; Ability; Personalized learning
Disciplines
Education | Educational Psychology
File Format
File Size
1460 KB
Language
English
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Repository Citation
Wright, D. B.
(2019).
Treating Rapid Responses as Incorrect for Non-Timed Formative Tests.
Open Education Studies, 1(1),
56-72.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/edu-2019-0004
