Article Review - Using Digital Assessments in the Classroom

The article “Emotions Experienced by Students Taking Online and Classroom Quizzes” discusses the advantages and disadvantages of giving students assessments online. It specifically addresses how a group of undergraduate students felt taking different types of assessments. First, the author mentions that there are many benefits to giving assessments online, especially the idea of students taking control of their own environment. In many situations students can control their own environment. There are many disadvantages though as well. Some people question how secure tests can be and if the technology is available (at school or home). As digital assessments have become increasingly popular more studies have been done, but there still is not a lot of information about the correlation between digital assessments and emotions. From studies that have been completed, the authors mentioned that “When educators first started using computers for testing, computer anxiety (anxiety produced from being unfamiliar with using a computer) had small effects on students’ performance, but these effects seem to have largely dissipated with a general increase in familiarity with using computers.” It seems in most studies there is not a large discrepancy between paper and digital, but more studies need to be done in order to best meet students’ needs.

This article was extremely interesting to me, especially because so many assessments are done online. In my classroom students cannot adjust their environment as much, because they are on desktops. I could, however, have the students use the math online component at home to take quizzes. Some students may not have the technology available at home and there could be parents or siblings helping those students. In the classroom though, like with PARCC, I feel like students do become anxious especially because of how much pressure is put on them and the things they hear. This is something that needs to be changed! Hopefully as students AND teachers become more familiar with online testing everyone will become more comfortable.

Stowell, J. R., Allan, W. D., & Teoro, S. M. (2012). Emotions Experienced by Students Taking Online and Classroom Quizzes. Journal Of Educational Computing Research, 47(1), 93-106.