THE CHALLENGES AND STATISTICAL IMPLICATION OF COMPUTER BASED TESTING(JAMB) ON NIGERIAN STUDENTS; THE NEED TO IMPLEMENT COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING

ABSTRACT

          CBT has been seen as an alternative to the unmanageable population of undergraduate students in Nigerianuniversities. This notwithstanding, the peculiar nature of some courses hinders its total implementation. Thisstudy was conducted to investigate the challenges and statistical implication of CBT for undergraduate in Universities. To this end, it examined the potential for using student feedback in the validation of assessment. A convenience sample of 120 students who had taken test on CBT was surveyed andquestionnaire was used for data collection. Data analysis demonstrated an auspicious characteristics of thetarget context for the CBT implementation as majority (95.8%) of students said they were competent with theuse of computers and 75% saying their computer anxiety was only mild or low but notwithstanding they havenot fully accepted the testing mode with only 29.2% in favor of it, due to the impaired validity of the testadministration which they reported as being many erroneous chemical formulas, equations and structures inthe test items even though they have nonetheless identified the achieved success the testing has made such asimmediate scoring, fastness and transparency in marking. As quality of designed items improves andsufficient time is allotted according to the test difficulty, the test experience will become favorable for students and subsequently CBT will gain its validation in this particular context.