Using Mobile Phones for Educational Assessment

Overview

M-assessment is rooted in incorporating technology into educational assessment. The National Research Council (2001) stated that technological advances had enormous potential for advancing the science, design, and use of educational assessment, especially in classroom assessment context. It was suggested that influence of technology would spread beyond classroom tests and high stakes tests were seemed as influenced. For example, Bennett (1999) claimed that test design, item generation, task presentation, scoring, and testing purpose and location for high stakes testing would be influenced. Incorporating technology into educational assessment started with implementing computer-based assessments, then mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and iPads and iPods were used. Almost all affordances of these little computers were collected and in one single piece of equipment: mobile phones. Educational assessment also benefited from mobile phones.

The earliest studies on m-assessment were published in mid-2000s. Although m-assessment is an emerging topic, its emergence attracted the attention of scholars around the world. To start with, Dr. McGuire at Anglia Polytechnic University, United Kingdom is one of the first scholars published in m-assessment. McGuire (2005) utilized mobile phones to collect student feedback via automated mobile phone calls. Dr. Virvou and Dr. Alepis at University of Piraeus, Greece are also among the first scholars published in m-assessment. Virvou and Alepis (2005) assessed students’ writing performance and provide feedback with mobile phones. Dr. Susono and Dr. Shimomura (2006) at Mie University, Japan are also among the pioneers who made use of mobile phones for presenting in class survey questions in Quick Response (QR, i.e., visual square code) format. Following years, m-assessment studies focused on delivering computer adaptive tests via mobile phones with Dr. Triantafillou, Dr. Georgiadou, and Dr. Economides at University of Macedonia, Greece publishing the first studies on delivering computer adaptive tests via mobile devices in 2008 (Triantafillou, Georgiadou, & Economides, 2008a & 2008b).

As one of the earliest studies, McGuire (2005) benefited from the calling function of mobile phones by presenting some questions to students via automated calls. Automated call system was developed to use outside of classroom for self and peer assessment, as well as collecting student data easily and reducing teacher workload. Automated calls reached out students who were working on their end of year project and asked them questions about their progress. McGuire interviewed 25 students benefited from m-assessment and their teachers to learn about their experiences with the system. Students narrated that using m-assessment increased their motivation, facilitated self-directed learning, and improved student-teacher relationships. Consistent with students’ experiences, teachers also observed that students’ motivation and self-esteem increased, students took responsibility for their learning and became independent learners, and the system improved teacher-student relationships.