Introduction

In fall 2017, West Coast University School of Pharmacy implemented ExamSoft for testing. Three courses in each didactic year employed ExamSoft. Prior to this, courses had Scantron-based exams. We surveyed the students to assess their perception of ExamSoft. We hypothesized that students' inherent bias towards technology affected their perception of ExamSoft.

Methods

To assess this hypothesis, we conducted a survey of all students. The survey contained questions about comfort with technology and nine questions on students' perceptions of ExamSoft and its usefulness.

Results

The survey responses were stratified according to the preference of respondents towards technology and its use in exams. Respondents were stratified into three groups: tech-embracers, tech-skeptics, and neutral. Our results showed that respondents classified as tech-skeptics tended to have a more negative view of ExamSoft and its perceived impact on their grades than students stratified as tech-embracers or neutral.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that students' inherent bias towards technology plays an important role in their perception of computer-based testing. Assessing incoming students' comfort with technology and student orientation activities to help acquaint students with new technology could help improve their acceptance of educational technology used for testing.

中文翻译：

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学生对使用 ExamSoft 进行机考的看法

介绍

2017 年秋季，西海岸大学药学院实施了 ExamSoft 进行测试。每个教学年的三门课程都使用了 ExamSoft。在此之前，课程有基于 Scantron 的考试。我们对学生进行了调查，以评估他们对 ExamSoft 的看法。我们假设学生对技术的固有偏见影响了他们对 ExamSoft 的看法。

方法

为了评估这一假设，我们对所有学生进行了调查。该调查包含有关技术舒适度的问题和关于学生对 ExamSoft 及其实用性的看法的九个问题。

结果

根据受访者对技术及其在考试中的使用的偏好，对调查答复进行了分层。受访者分为三组：技术拥护者、技术怀疑者和中立者。我们的结果表明，与被归类为技术拥护者或中立者的学生相比，被归类为技术怀疑论者的受访者往往对 ExamSoft 及其对成绩的影响持更负面的看法。

结论

我们的研究表明，学生对技术的固有偏见在他们对基于计算机的测试的看法中起着重要作用。评估新生对技术的舒适度和学生迎新活动以帮助学生熟悉新技术有助于提高他们对用于测试的教育技术的接受度。