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The Theory Behind EduCAD™
The core of the EduCAD patent represents a transition from what most people call testing to a process of diagnosis. The multiple-choice testing format has evolved over four generations.
Generation I provides for arbitrary passive distractors consisting of multiple-choice questions designed to make it easier to grade a large set of examinations. This is the “Scantron” generation. The goal is to provide a simple key that can be used to measure student performance in a pass/fail environment. For each question, a correct answer and multiple incorrect alternatives (the distractors) are supplied. The alternatives are arbitrary and in most cases unrealistic.
Generation II provides for relevant passive distractors providing alternative choices that appear to be reasonable answers. Today, most multiple-choice testing belongs to this generation.
Generation III provides for informative passive distractors, which can contain reportable analytic data. This generation is currently under investigation by the major publishers and providers of tests and testing services. Testing remains a binary process of correct/incorrect answers, but the diagnosis of the incorrect answers is used to present an alternative picture of the student’s weaknesses. Harcourt Brace publishes a report (in PDF format) regarding this generation.
Generation IV provides for actionable active/intelligent distractors, which are achievable by misapplication of primitive concepts. Selecting one of these distractors dynamically determines the next problem to be presented. Instead of generating a numerical score an adaptive, algorithmetic approach provides a diagnostic-based map of the student’s knowledge state at an instant in time. EduCAD is Generation IV.
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