Top 5 Features in Knowledge Testing Software
Knowledge testing software is a tool that can greatly help educators in the creation of high-quality tests, that are super effective at gauging just how well their students have managed to master the subject. Realistically speaking, constantly being able to come up with good tests is one of the hardest parts of being an educator, for several reasons. First, you have to make sure that your tests aren’t repetitive, or sooner or later your students will learn to take advantage of that. But let’s assume that all of your students have perfect morals and refuse to partake in any sort of cheating, and you still have to make a test that is clear enough to comprehend and yet challenging enough to accurately show how much the student has learned.
Therefore, an educator should be ready to accept any kind of assistance when it comes to constructing tests; not only will this make their lives easier, it will also make sure that the students get to take high-quality tests that will be a great help in their education. That being said, there are a few features that every knowledge testing application should possess. If it doesn’t, it can create additional issues that the educator then has to resolve, and today we want to talk about what we think are the five most essential features in this respect.
User Friendliness
Software-based assistance is only good as long as it makes us perform tasks faster and more efficiently than before. If it takes a long time for the educator to pick up on how to use the software, or the software is just not that user-friendly to begin with then most people won’t even bother with it. The same goes for the students; if the software isn’t “simple” enough for the average student to comprehend and master during the time they have to perform the test itself, then that can impact their overall grade and throw them way off.
In other words, the art of performing the test itself shouldn’t impact on how well the student does on the test – it should not be something that gets in their way at all. For these two reasons, it’s extremely important that the developer thinks about user friendliness at every point, as it is the primary means of connection with the user. It’s the first thing that they will notice, and more often than not it’s going to be the deciding factor on whether they’re going to keep using it or not.
Reporting and Statistics
Another very important feature that every knowledge testing application should possess is a way to collect and arrange test results, accept feedback from users and report the data back to the educator and/or the developer. Let’s talk about test result statistics first. When using an all-inclusive software training method with a good algorithm for arranging and processing statistical data, it gives the educator access to valuable insight about how well their students are doing, and in which area they may be lacking in knowledge and skill.
Handling statistical data manually can be a real pain, and although software capable of processing such data has existed for more than two decades, you still had to enter some of the information manually. A good automated testing application does this for you entirely and just provides you with the results and the facts you need to know, organized in a way that is easy to read and understand.
Knowledge Testing Security
When it comes to any type of app that potentially transmits personal information online, great care has to be taken for that personal information not to fall into the wrong hands. And considering how rapidly information and software technology is advancing nowadays, this is a task that is sometimes very hard to put into practice.
For identification purposes, it’s often unavoidable for one to input their personal information when registering with your knowledge testing software of choice. The personal information that software then has to protect is primarily that of the students, but of the educator as well, and anyone else who happens to use the software. This means that the software itself needs to be capable of creating a highly encrypted connection for transmitting all this sensitive information, especially if it’s required of the user to input their credit card credentials.
Multimedia Support
For years tests have mostly been based on text and simple images only, but that’s more due to convenience than anything else. With the help of a computer tests can now be expanded and upgraded to be much more interactive and intuitive than before, and for such a modern test to function properly the knowledge evaluation software has to have adequate multimedia support.
Complex images, video and even audio can now easily be included in a simple test, and by incorporating flash you can really create an interactive environment for the student that can help them understand the subject on a greater level.
User Management
Finally, one of the features that a knowledge evaluation application absolutely has to have is good user management. Put simply, user management is the process of handling a large number of user accounts – that can easily be present when using an online app of any kind meant for large numbers of people – and that includes knowledge testing software. Especially if the software is part of a larger all-encompassing suite like an LMS, you need to make sure that you have a decent control over the user accounts, and what sort of privileges get offered to them.
But user management also means that the users themselves can manipulate their accounts to a certain extent (being able to recover a password if they’ve forgotten it is a good example), so that they themselves can set the software up according to their needs.