October 2011 Volume 14 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

The use of NRET as a scoring method in this study represented a departure from normal testing routine for the
students, although the method might have seemed familiar to them. The students had gone through more than seven
years of formal education being assessed using the MC and NR scoring methods. There was a possibility that these
students could not follow the NRET test instructions realistically and consistently. CAAS was developed in such a
way that students were forced to follow NRET test instructions. If a student did not follow NRET by either not
choosing one option as the answer or omitting an option, the student could not submit the solution, and a reminder
would pop up telling him or her of the violation of the test instructions. Figure 2 shows such an interface of CAAS.
Figure 2. Not choosing one option as the answer
Feedback on student’s knowledge level for each item is provided. Based on the NRET scores, students’ knowledge
could be classified into full knowledge (4), partial knowledge (3, 2 or 1), absence of knowledge (0), partial
misconception (−1 or −2), and full misconception (−3). Figure 3 shows the partial knowledge detected by NRET,
while Figure 4 shows the partial misconception detected by NRET.
Figure 3: Partial Knowledge (a score of 2) detected by NRET
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