Beyond item analysis: Connecting student behaviour and performance using e-assessment logs

Traditional item analyses such as classical test theory (CTT) use exam-taker responses to assessment items to approximate their difficulty and discrimination. The increased adoption by educational institutions of electronic assessment platforms (EAPs) provides new avenues for assessment analytics by capturing detailed logs of an exam-taker's journey through their exam. This paper explores how logs created by EAPs can be employed alongside exam-taker responses and CTT to gain deeper insights into exam items. In particular, we propose an approach for deriving features from exam logs for approximating item difficulty and discrimination based on exam-taker behaviour during an exam. Items for which difficulty and discrimination differ significantly between CTT analysis and our approach are flagged through outlier detection for independent academic review. We demonstrate our approach by analysing de-identified exam logs and responses to assessment items of 463 medical students enrolled in a first-year biomedical sciences course. The analysis shows that the number of times an exam-taker visits an item before selecting a final response is a strong indicator of an item's difficulty and discrimination. Scrutiny by the course instructor of the seven items identified as outliers suggests our log-based analysis can provide insights beyond what is captured by traditional item analyses.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Traditional item analysis is based on exam-taker responses to the items using mathematical and statistical models from classical test theory (CTT). The difficulty and discrimination indices thus calculated can be used to determine the effectiveness of each item and consequently the reliability of the entire exam.

What this paper adds

• Data extracted from exam logs can be used to identify exam-taker behaviours which complement classical test theory in approximating the difficulty and discrimination of an item and identifying items that may require instructor review.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Identifying the behaviours of successful exam-takers may allow us to develop effective exam-taking strategies and personal recommendations for students.
• Analysing exam logs may also provide an additional tool for identifying struggling students and items in need of revision.

     

The prevalence of low health literacy in undergraduate students in Pakistan

This Regular Feature is based on a PhD study assessing the level of health literacy among university students in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was carried out using the validated European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU-Q) and non-parametric tests used to analyse data with the aim of determining the influence of personal determinants on health literacy skills. The findings of the study concluded that the population had a low health literacy level with limited skills in accessing, understanding, appraising and applying information for health care. Gender, age, and native languages, all had a statistically significant influence on health literacy skills. Practical implications are presented for the role of university libraries in supporting the development of health literacy in their undergraduate student populations are presented, including the need for the provision of health information in native languages.     

In search of health information…

Searching for health information is a core activity for health library and knowledge workers, whether seeking to support health care workers in overcoming barriers to accessing drug information, exploring the potential of text mining in developing search filters, translating search filters for use on alternative databases, or the importance of updating search filters to ensure their ongoing utility.