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Information technology has influenced the entire academic landscape and several institutions worldwide have tapped into the benefits of these technologies. Computer Based testing is a major change that has occurred based on the emergence of educational technologies to provide feedback to students and instructors on the entire learning process by changing the educational landscape by bringing about advancement in pedagogy and learning. The benefits of Computer Based Tests are enormous ranging from flexibility in timing, immediate scoring, security and ensuring examination integrity amongst other benefits (Noyes & Garland, 2008; Nutty, 2008; Tella and Bashorun, 2011) and is viewed as a solution to the major challenges facing testing in the world (Trotter, 2011). However, despite these benefits developing countries still lag behaving in the implementation of computer based testing (Mandika et al, 2010).
A study by Luech & Sureci (2011) showed the emergence of computer based testing occurred in 1985 in an ACCUPACER testing program which was conducted in order to access students entering college in Mathematics and English language. But several national tests have emerged since its introduction including the Certified Network of Engineers examination in 1990 Computer Based testing format was introduced for GMAT in 1997 and other major international licenses and certifications have been introduced since then. In Nigeria CBT was introduced in university examinations in 2006 with University of Ilorin and Covenant University pioneering the innovation (Tella & Bashorun 2011). As at the 2018/2019 academic session, University of Ilorin had a student population of 55,242 while Covenant University currently has a student population of 8,768 full-time students. Similarly, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board was conducted in 2013 and was quickly followed by other national examinations such as the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) as well as college entrance examinations and job entrance examinations in Nigeria. However, questions still arise based on variation in performance between Computer Based Tests and Paper Based Tests as well as variations in the adoption of Computer based Testing across different courses taken. Previous studies have shown preference for CBT over PPT (Tella and Bashorun, 2011; Alabi et al.2005& Croft et al, 2001). Though students showed preference for CBT (Noyles & Garland,2008; Notty,2008, Tella,2011), other studies have shown students performed poorly in Computer based tests as compared to Paper Based Test. Research shows that students experience challenges when paper based tests are transferred to computer tests with variations in test scores between Paper based tests and computer based test (Mills et al, 2005; Noyes & Garland, 2008).