Test administration of general course modules to large population of students in a Nigerian university: a thematic analysis of issues and challenges in the use of computer based test , , , , ,

Abstract

With increasing students’ enrolment in Nigerian public tertiary education institutions, the class population and registration for general course modules are becoming larger. The use of Computer Based Testing (CBT) is therefore becoming an attractive alternative for paper based test to easily assess and timely grade students’ performance. The survey research design was adopted to allow researchers collect, analyse and interpret data. The study was conducted in Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State with a population of 24,426 people. 350 students, 40 lecturers and 10 ICT staff totaling 400 respondents participated in the research. A structured online questionnaire with 20 items was used to collect information. The study found that CBT is necessary for test administration because marking is more accurate and consistent and computers do not suffer from human error. The study exposed various challenges faced by students, challenges with CBT for test administration in general courses and challenges with CBT for test administration in large student population. The study thus recommended that system upgrades are essential to enable proper service delivery so as to forestall result mix-up after exams especially in CBT examination for large population of students.