Students’ Perception of Performance vs. Actual Performance during Computer Based Testing: a Temporal Approach

In this paper we present a case study of tracking a) students‟ perceptions of performance and goal expectancy before taking a computer-based test, b) their perception of performance after taking the test, c) their actual performance as it is calculated by the testing environment itself and d) their timespent behavior during test. Our goal is to explore whether students' time-spent behavior during computer-based testing – expressing “(un-)certainty” can reveal any differences between what they believe they know, and what they actually know. Furthermore, we investigate the correlation between students' goal-expectancy and their “(un-)certainty”. We conducted a case study with a simplified version of the LAERS assessment environment. We used statistical methods and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for the construction of a predictive model which explains the results, based on students‟ time-spent on answering each question of a multiple choice quiz. Initial results indicate that a) students‟ perceptions of performance and their actual performance significantly differ, both pre and post test, b) students‟ temporal behavior can explain satisfactorily what they actually know, and c) goal-expectancy has an indirect effect on students‟ “(un-)certainty”.