Online Assessment of Foreign Language Proficiency: Meeting Development, Design and Delivery Challenges

Abstract

In this chapter, the challenges involved in creating online Arabic and Russian proficiency tests by using a commercial test product are discussed. Guidelines used for item and test development are presented, along with specific challenges test developers faced in designing computerized, semiadaptable tests. Also discussed are the issues involved in delivering the tests securely over the Internet to examinees, who took them on computers in college and university language labs across the United States and abroad. The chapter concludes with a list of five important lessons that could help others who are contemplating a similar test development project.