Need
Data on employee competence is no longer sought only by the training department for internal use, but is demanded by management for a variety of business and certification purposes. As certification and competency testing are increasingly used in business and industry, knowledge of correct testing practices should be part of the skills of a professional in the field of human performance. In addition, Level III and Level IV approaches to evaluation will require valid Level II assessments. Finally, avoidance of lawsuits and ethical practice requires that competency testing meet rigorous standards and that test results are correctly interpreted.
Goal
The goal of the workshop is to convince you that testing in an organization can be vastly improved with relatively little additional investment–if you know how. Organizations that think sophisticated testing is too expensive should at least consider that the resources they currently spend on testing may very well be wasted. In most instances, testing correctly is no more expensive than testing incorrectly–increasing the knowledge of the test designer is the only required investment.
Questions answered
♦ How do I decide whether to create a CRT or a norm-referenced test?
♦ What does a test score mean?
♦ What are the basic methods of test interpretation?
♦ How will a content hierarchy help me plan a test?
♦ What are the five types of tests most commonly used in instructional systems?
♦ How many items should there be on a test?
♦ What are the six most common types of items for cognitive tests? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
♦ What are the four most common types of rating scales for performance tests?
♦ What are their strengths and weaknesses?
♦ What are the two most practical procedures for determining the cut-off (master/non-master) score?
♦ How do I establish reliability for my test?
♦ How do I establish the validity of my test?
♦ What are the three basic item analysis techniques?
Workshop length
The workshop has four versions, a:
♦ one-day overview,
♦ two-day overview,
♦ one-day with an emphasis on item writing
♦ two-day with the emphasis on item writing