Subject: Computer Assisted Testing

From: Carl David <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 12:34:12 -0400 (EDT)

Knowing that this is not computational chemistry per se, perhaps
some readers will be interested in the following:
 
As a service to my students I have been placing Physical Chemistry
questions on the Internet in a form which allows them to access them,
attempt to answer them, and have their answers graded on the spot.
For the time being, this is intended to be a practice examination
format.
 
Since 1981, I have been writing and arguing that we should move to
Computer Assisted Testing, where students must demonstrate unequivocal
mastery of test questions, without partial credit, to pass courses,
but where trivial errors could be caught in real time and students
could be given the opportunity to correct those errors before being
graded ("New Ways to Test Science", College Board Review,
2, 119(1981)).
 
These WWW questions seem an appropriate forum for judging how much
help and aid one could (or should), give to students while they are
taking examinations, and several of the newer questions (especially
the stoichiometry one in the preliminary section) have extensive help
(although not context sensitive help yet) which I am asking interested
persons to look at and criticize. I am in desparate need of
stimulating questions, especially in quantum mechanics,
spectroscopy, and statistical thermodynamics. Any suggestions would
be gratefully accepted. Criticisms are welcome also.
 
The LateX2html files, converted appropriately to Perl, may
serve as a useful example of how mathematics, text, and graphics
can be incorporated into Web presentations.
 
If you want to try the server, or have your students try it, please
point NetScape or Mosaic to
http://mmedia.ucc.uconn.edu/~cdavid/home.html
(the above has tilde cdavid, which may not mail properly, here in Storrs
tildes always disappear mysteriously).

Thanks
 
Carl David
[email-masked]