Adaptative Tests as an Evaluation Method in the STEM Context: An Experience in the Energy Technology Domain

Abstract

The work developed in this study focuses on improving evaluation methods implemented in the Energy Technology course of the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Málaga (Spain). For this purpose, adaptive assessment techniques, which are common in other teaching fields, such as language teaching, were developed and analysed. The potential benefits of this new tool in the field of STEM education mainly rely on the improved ability of adaptative tests to measure the level of acquisition of skills and knowledge by the student in less time and with less consumption of resources. This advance facilitates a continuous and detailed monitoring during evaluation tasks in the learning process. This work, organized in two stages, has first analysed the role played by several factors such as the perception of difficulty by the student and by the lecturers, the response time and the success rate of the questions. Subsequently, and based on the previous information, adaptive tests were designed based on decision trees that consider two essential criteria: the difficulty level of the question and the thematic area that each question belongs to within the syllabus. Results indicate that adaptive tests show a significant reduction in the time invested in the tests without substantially altering the evaluation results and grades obtained.