Student testing rules and technology

1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

This Regulation on testing technology for conducting final exams of students at Atyrau Oil and Gas University (hereinafter the Rule) was developed to regulate the procedure for preparing and conducting computer and blank testing at Atyrau Oil and Gas University and on the basis of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Education" (dated July 27, 2007, with amendments and additions); The rules for organizing the educational process on credit technology of education (order of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 20, 2011, No. 152); Standard rules for ongoing monitoring of progress, intermediate and final certification (order of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 125 dated March 18, 2008, with amendments and additions); State compulsory standard of higher education, State compulsory standard of postgraduate education (Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated May 13, 2016, No. 292); Standard rules for the activities of organizations of higher and postgraduate education (Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 05.17.2013, No. 499).

The rules on the organization and procedure for conducting computer and blank testing were developed on the basis of the following documents (council decision, order) providing for the transition to compulsory computer testing and blank testing as a form of control of students' independent work in the intersessional period.

Testing is a stage in the final control of the study of a discipline (exam), which allows both to check knowledge of the entire studied program, and to carry out a selective test of knowledge in cycles of general humanitarian and socio-economic, general mathematical and natural sciences, general professional and special disciplines.

Testing is carried out for 1-3 (4) courses at least 6 times a year. The specific terms of testing (exams) are approved by the order of the rector.

The student testing schedule is drawn up by the Office of Information Technology and Knowledge Control (hereinafter referred to as OITandKC) on the basis of the academic calendar and applications of deans (departments) in accordance with the schedule of training sessions and is agreed with the deans of faculties.

The content of test items aimed at identifying knowledge of the general fundamental provisions of the discipline should correspond to the ultimate goals of studying the discipline. Tasks to identify mental skills should be at least half of the items on the exam test. Tasks to identify knowledge of small, private and reference information are inadmissible.

The examination test must pass the examination - its validity, reliability must be confirmed by extracts from the minutes of the meetings of the certification commissions operating within the framework of the Educational and Methodological Councils of the faculties, the conclusion of the expert commission of the Methodological Department of AOGU.

 

2. DEFINITIONS USED IN THIS REGULATION

In this Regulation, the following terms are used with appropriate definitions:

Auditorium duty officer (hereinafter referred to as the duty officer) is an employee of the university responsible for organizing and conducting testing in a given audience at the time of complex testing. The subject specialist cannot be on duty;

Correct answer codes - a set of indicators of correct answers to all test items;

Complex testing is a form of examination conducted simultaneously in a block of related disciplines;

Blank testing is a form of exam that is conducted on special paper forms;

Questionnaire book - contains test items in subjects;

Computer classes - a set of classrooms designed for complex testing, satisfying the requirements of the educational institution and working in the same local network;

A software product is a special computer program designed to test students;

Minutes of the meeting of the appeal commission - a special document confirming the quantitative change in the scores of applicants who submitted an application for appeal;

Test is a system of tasks of a certain form and content, differentiated by the degree of difficulty, which makes it possible to effectively assess the structure and level of knowledge, skills and abilities;

Test task - the minimum component of the test unit, which consists of a condition (question) and a set of answers to choose from; meets the requirements of subject purity of content, logical consistency, correctness of form, requirements of independence, manufacturability and efficiency;

Examination sheet for testing / complex testing - a list displaying the results of students who participated in testing or complex testing;

An appeal is a formal written statement expressing disagreement with the test scores given.

3. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF TESTING

This technology is used to conduct final examinations of full-time, part-time, full-time / part-time students using distance educational technologies of forms of training by the method of computer and form testing.

The test / comprehensive test of the final exams is conducted according to the approved exam schedule.

Testing tasks are:

• assessment of educational achievements of students;
• determination of the level of theoretical knowledge of students in disciplines, assessment of the quality of knowledge, skills and abilities in disciplines, due to the knowledge of students;
• conducting a comparative analysis of the quality of educational services provided by the university.

Depending on the goals, the types of testing are determined:

• current control of students' knowledge of computer and blank testing;
• midterm control of students' knowledge;
• final control of students' knowledge;
• preparation of VOUD and state certification of graduating courses.

4. FORMATION OF A BANK OF TEST TASKS

These requirements have been prepared on the basis of the requirements of the AKZO and Platonus applied programs (Appendix 1), used in conducting exams for students full-time, part-time, full-time / part-time with the use of distance educational technologies of forms of education by the method of computer testing.

Requirements for test items by discipline:

• Discipline test questions are drawn up in accordance with the standard and work programs of courses in accordance with the State Education Standard;
• Test questions should be divided by topics (modules, sections of the course) in a percentage corresponding to the allotted number of hours for the work program;
• For students in the state, Russian and English languages, test questions are drawn up in the state, Russian and English languages, respectively. Differences in test questions of the same discipline in the state, Russian and English languages are allowed;
• Test questions should be short, without undue detail, using commonly used names and terms;
• The format of the test items should correspond to the closed type with a set of correct answers, allowing the selection of only one element from the set;
• The test task should be presented in the form of a short judgment, formulated in clear language and excluding the ambiguity of the conclusion of the tested person on the requirements of the test task;
• The content of the test items should be aimed at monitoring knowledge of the basic laws and patterns, processes, concepts, terminology, factual material, theoretical and applied value of scientific achievements in different areas of the discipline being studied;
• The content of the test item should NOT contain repetitions, double negatives and slang;
• The wording of the test task should be expressed in a narrative form (questions consisting of several sentences are excluded);
• There should be no imperative mood in the formulation of the test item (choose, calculate, indicate, etc.);
• Conclusions like: all of the above is true, all of the indicated answers are incorrect, etc .;
• Test items should have different levels of difficulty;
• Tasks should not contain deliberately false answers, answers containing a hint, as well as clearly standing out, isolated answers;
• Test items that require students to make detailed conclusions on the requirements of test items should be avoided ("long" question and "short" answers are better than vice versa);
• The test item should not reflect the subjective opinion or understanding of an individual author.

Requirements for the bank of test items (BTI)

The bank of test items for the discipline must meet the following requirements:

• BTI must meet the requirements of the State Educational Standard and be determined by the content of the tasks included in the goals of a specific educational program;
• Pass an experimental test, on the basis of which the indicators of validity and accuracy of the assessment will be determined;
• The total number of questions of BTI in general education disciplines must contain at least 120 questions;
• The total number of BTI questions in the disciplines of the elective course and elective disciplines must contain at least 80 questions;
• Depending on the proportion of discipline in credits, the number of test questions of BTZ is subject to change:

№	Amount of credits	General education disciplines	Elective course and elective disciplines
1	1	120	80
2	2	240	160
3	3	360	240
4	4	480	320
5	5	600	400

• The developer of test questions and the head of the department are personally responsible for the correctness of questions and answers to them, for grammatical, syntactic, semantic and other errors.
• Work on the preparation, examination of banks of test tasks, testing (if this type of work is not provided for by job responsibilities) is paid by AOGU units (faculties) in accordance with the time norms for calculating the scope of work for organizing and conducting testing at AOGU.

The procedure for forming the Bank of Test Tasks (BTT)

BTT in all disciplines taken out for the examination session is created at the departments of the faculty by leading teachers in accordance with the curriculum.

Reviewing the quality of test items is carried out by the attestation commission of the faculty, functioning within the framework of the Educational and Methodological Council of the faculty. The attestation commission has the right to add to the BTT additional test tasks, external assessment of educational achievements and State attestation, offered by the National Testing Center.

After reviewing and passing the examination by the attestation commission, BTT by discipline is transferred TO OITandKC AOGU for technical examination. Based on the results of the work of the expert commission, a protocol for the examination of test tasks is drawn up, which is an integral part of the BTT. One copy of the BTT in the discipline is kept at the department. One copy of the BTT for the discipline is transferred to the OITandKC on the basis of an expert commission on the use of them as control means of the educational process. OITandKC conducts in an automated mode an indirect assessment of the methodological adequacy of test packages.

BTT cover all programmatic issues of the academic discipline by modules and topics. The bank of test items in one discipline must contain at least 80 questions per credit. Each version of the exam tests should contain 30 tasks for full-time students, formed by rotating the available questions based on a sample of questions for all modules of the discipline.

Responsibility for the quality of the BTT and their timely preparation are borne by the authors, the head of the department that provides training in a specific discipline, the attestation commission of the faculty and the expert commission of the institute.

The teacher of the discipline annually corrects and supplements the BTT. The basis for revising the BTT by discipline is changes in the work program and conclusions from the analysis of the exam results, as well as an experimental assessment of the quality of test items. Changes in the BTT should be carried out before the beginning of the session of each academic semester and agreed with the attestation commission of the faculty. The attestation commission of the faculty transmits to the OITandKC a certificate of changes in the banks of test tasks for all disciplines read by the departments of the faculty. A summary of the reasons for the changes made to the bank is attached to the certificate.

5. PROCEDURE FOR PREPARING AND CONDUCTING TESTING

The procedure for preparing and conducting an exam based on computer testing includes the following steps:

• preparation and examination of test items;
• creation of a database of test items;
• computer preparation of the test from the existing database of test items;
• preparation of a place for testing: software products, computer classes and classrooms;
• preparation of a book of questionnaires;
• testing
• processing of test results;
• input of test results;
• issuance of test protocols (examination test sheets) to the office of registrars.

The testing procedure consists in performing the following operations:

• preparation and examination of test items;
• creation of a database of test items;
• computer preparation of the test from the existing database of test items;
• preparation of a place for testing: software products, computer classes and classrooms;
• Entering the results of computer testing is carried out automatically after the end of the time allotted for testing or by the student himself, subject to the time frame for testing.
• The input of the results of the blank testing is carried out after processing on the basis of software tools for a certain time.
• Statistical processing of test results is performed using a computer. The essence of the statistical processing of the test results is to check the answers of the examiner by comparing his answers with the codes of correct answers, after which the number of correct answers is determined, which is compared with the norms defined in clause 6 of these Regulations.
• Controversial issues are considered by the AOGU Appeal Commission, appointed by order of the rector of the institute in accordance with clause 10 of the Regulation.

6. ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE OF STUDENTS

Each correct answer is worth 1 point. As a percentage for 30 questions - 1 question is equivalent to 3.33%; for 20 questions - 1 question is equivalent to 5%. An incorrect answer is estimated at 0 points.

To assess the level of knowledge, the following correspondence scale is used

Letter system score	Digital equivalent of points	%	Assessment according to the traditional system
А А-	4,0 3,67	95-100 90-94	Very good
В+ В В-	3,33 3,0 2,67	85-89 80-84 75-79	Good
С+ С С- D+ D	2,33 2,0 1,67 1,33 1,0	70-74 65-69 60-64 55-59 50-54	Satisfactory
F	0	0-49	Unsatisfactory

7.  RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF STUDENTS

The rights and obligations of students at AOGU NJSC are regulated by the current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Charter of the Institute, internal regulations of the Institute, the Agreement for the provision of paid educational services, orders of the rector of the Institute.

Testing takes place without interruption for 90 minutes. The student signs the boarding sheet, thereby confirming that he has sat down in the appropriate place for him.

During the exam, the student is prohibited from:

• leave the audience during testing. If the student has finished testing before the allotted time, he can leave the computer room or classroom.
• write off, use cheat sheets, mobile communications (pager, cell phones, headphones, etc.).

In cases where a student has a cell phone, a cheat sheet, the audience on duty inform the OITandKC representative, draw up an act of detection, a decision is made to remove the student from testing and cancel the test results. The student's work is assessed "unsatisfactory and these disciplines are re-studied on a paid basis.

Students have the right:

•  contact the Testing Officer or the Dean of the Faculty on questions related to the test exam;
• in case of disagreement with the test result, submit an application for an appeal in accordance with the Rule;

During testing, students are not entitled to:

• independently change the place for testing and the audience;
• turn off or turn on a personal computer, open other computer programs besides the testing program, change the position of office equipment;
• use educational literature, reference materials, abstracts, communications, etc .;
• talking loudly or distracting nearby students.

Students are required to:

• show up for the exam within the timeframe specified in the approved schedule;
• have with you an identity document (student ID, record book, identity card);
• record the attendance of the person on duty in the audience and go to the place indicated by the person on duty;
• follow the instructions of the person on duty in the audience to behave in a disciplined manner and listen carefully to the explanations of the person on duty;

If these points are not fulfilled, the student is not allowed to be tested.

If the student was not admitted to the final exam in the discipline due to arrears in payment for educational services, subject to the repayment of the financial debt on the basis of the order of the dean of the faculty, he has the right to first pass the missed exam only after the end of the intermediate certification period (examination session).

If the student did not show up for the final exam in the discipline, subject to the provision of supporting documents on the basis of the order of the dean of the faculty, he has the right to first pass the missed exam only after the end of the period of intermediate certification (examination session).

8.  FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCE DESK

The main task of the audience duty officer is to ensure order in the audience during the testing of students.

The Audience Officer has the following functions:

• checking the readiness of the audience for the exam (the correspondence of the seats to the number of students assigned to the given audience);
• start-up, seating of students and identification of the personality of students in agreement with representatives of the dean's office of faculties;
• explanation of the rules of conduct during the exam;
• explanation of the rules for filling out an answer and working with the software product and forms for answers;
• acceptance of completed works of students;
• fixing the fact of students passing computer and blank testing and test results on paper;
• the person on duty is personally responsible for the testing procedure in the auditorium entrusted to him.

 

9. FUNCTIONS OF THE INSTITUTE UNITS PROVIDING THE ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCTING OF COMPUTER AND BLANK TESTING

The organization of testing is provided by departments, dean's offices, the Office of Information Technology and Knowledge Control and the office of the registrar.

I. Educational-methodical management:

• Submits for approval the schedule of examinations to the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and further notify dean's offices and students.
• draw up an academic calendar;
• accept an application from students for an appeal and organize an appeal to UITiKZ

II. Deans of faculties:

• provide OITandKC with lists of students admitted for testing:
• ensure the attendance of students for testing within the established norms;

IIІ. Departments:

• submit an application for midterm, final control of students' knowledge;
• ensure the development of banks of test items for the disciplines of curricula;
• provide test items OITandKC (paper and electronic versions);
• set testing parameters together with OITandKC
• provide annual review and update of test items.

IV. Registrar Office:

• in accordance with the concept of testing, introduces testing sessions into the training schedule;
• prepare an order for admission to the exam of students before the start of the session;
• accept examination sheets from OITandKC.

V. Office of Information Technology and Knowledge Control:

• develops a methodology for conducting intra-university testing;
• provides input into the database of the testing program (TP) of test items, and the contingent of students (full name, group) in the context of faculties and specialties;
• makes changes to the content of test items at the suggestions of teachers of departments;
• draws up a work schedule for test administrators in computer classes;
• provides technical support for the testing system;
• on the basis of applications from dean's offices and departments for testing, draws up a general testing schedule and submission for adding testing sessions to the schedule;
• carries out processing of test results.
• control of the process of passing testing in classrooms and outside.

 

10.RULES OF CONDUCT IN COMPUTER CLASSES AND AUDIENCES DURING TESTING AND WRITTEN EXAMINATION

It is prohibited in computer labs and classrooms of the Institute:

• walking in outerwear and hats;
• loud conversations, noise, walking along the corridors during testing;
• the use of mobile communications;
• smoking, except for places specially designated and equipped for smoking;
• drinking alcoholic beverages, using toxic and narcotic substances;
• use of foul language and other antisocial behavior.

11. WHEN CONDUCTING EXAMINATIONS IN THE FORM OF BLANK TESTING:

• examinations in the form of blank testing are organized by OITandKC employees;
• students are admitted to the exam in accordance with the approved exam schedule and the order for admission to the exam in the relevant discipline;
• students who are more than 15 minutes late by the start of the exam are not allowed to take the exam in this discipline during the current period of intermediate certification;
• in the examination rooms during the examination there are attendants appointed by the order of the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, whose duties include monitoring compliance with the requirements for passing exams;
• admission of students to OITandKC is carried out by employees of the relevant dean's offices on the basis of an order for admission to passing the exam in the relevant discipline;
• when attending the exam, the student is obliged to provide a document identifying his identity; in the absence of this document, the student is not allowed into the classroom;
• seating of students in places for testing is carried out by employees of OITandKC;
• after seating, the student receives an answer form and a questionnaire book and begins to answer questions;
• 45 minutes are allotted for one exam, after the specified time the exam is terminated;
• at the end of the exam, the answer sheet is processed at the OITandKC, the result is transferred to the office-registrar and recorded in the Electronic-Automated System;
• each correct answer is worth 1 point. As a percentage for 30 questions - 1 question is equivalent to 3.33%. An incorrect answer is estimated at 0 points (0%);
• the student, in case of fixing the fact of the use of prohibited reference materials containing information on the discipline of the exam, the use of communication facilities, as well as violation of order in the classroom, is suspended from passing the exam and removed from the classroom, the results of the discipline exam (block of disciplines) are canceled;
• the fact of the student's removal from the classroom is documented by an act, re-passing the exam in the current period of intermediate certification is not allowed;
• in case of disagreement with the test result, file an appeal in accordance with clause 13;

12. WHEN CONDUCTING EXAMINATIONS IN WRITTEN FORM:

• written examinations are organized by UITiKZ employees;
• students are admitted to the exam in accordance with the approved exam schedule and the order for admission to the exam in the relevant discipline;
• students who are late for more than 15 minutes before the start of the exam are not allowed to take the exam in this discipline during the current period of intermediate certification;
• in the examination rooms during the examination there are attendants appointed by the order of the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, whose duties include monitoring compliance with the requirements for passing exams;
• admission of students to the classroom is carried out by employees of the relevant dean's offices on the basis of an order for admission to the exam in the relevant discipline;
• when attending the exam, the student is obliged to provide a document identifying his identity; in the absence of this document, the student is not allowed into the classroom;
• seating of students in places during the exam is carried out by the audience on duty;
• after seating, the trainer receives a ticket with questions in this discipline and an answer sheet;
• in each ticket there are 3 questions in this discipline and each correct answer is evaluated up to 33.33 points, in total it receives 100 points. An incorrect answer is estimated at 0 points.
• 90 minutes are allotted for one exam; after the specified time, the exam is terminated;
• when conducting an exam in writing, the answer sheet is subject to coding in accordance with the regulations for coding written answers of students at the institute;
• after checking the answer sheet, the results are transferred to the office of the registrar during the day for entering the data into the AIS Platonus;
• the student, in case of fixing the fact of the use of prohibited reference materials containing information on the discipline of the exam, the use of communication facilities, as well as violation of order in the classroom, is suspended from passing the exam and removed from the classroom, the results of the discipline exam (block of disciplines) are canceled;
• the fact of the student's removal from the classroom is documented by an act, re-passing the exam in the current period of intermediate certification is not allowed;
• in case of disagreement with the test result, apply for an appeal in accordance with clause 13.

13. APPEAL

1. Students who disagree with the test results submit an application written in their own hand to the appeal commission before 18:00 the next day after the announcement of the exam result.
2. The Appeal Commission examines the applications, adopts and fixes the decision by drawing up a protocol. The commission has the right to request test assignments and a student's questionnaire from OITandKC through its representative.
3. In case of receipt of appeals on the quality and correctness of test materials, the numbers of the questions submitted for the appeal must be indicated.