Loading…

A Meta-Analysis of Test Scores in Proctored and Unproctored Ability Assessments

Unproctored, web-based assessments are frequently compromised by a lack of control over the participants' test-taking behavior. It is likely that participants cheat if personal consequences are high. This meta-analysis summarizes findings on context effects in unproctored and proctored ability...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of psychological assessment : official organ of the European Association of Psychological Assessment 2020, Vol.36 (1), p.174-184
Main Authors: Steger, Diana, Schroeders, Ulrich, Gnambs, Timo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Unproctored, web-based assessments are frequently compromised by a lack of control over the participants' test-taking behavior. It is likely that participants cheat if personal consequences are high. This meta-analysis summarizes findings on context effects in unproctored and proctored ability assessments and examines mean score differences and correlations between both assessment contexts. As potential moderators, we consider (a) the perceived consequences of the assessment, (b) countermeasures against cheating, (c) the susceptibility to cheating of the measure itself, and (d) the use of different test media. For standardized mean differences, a three-level random-effects meta-analysis based on 109 effect sizes from 49 studies (total N = 100,434) identified a pooled effect of Δ = 0.20, 95% CI [0.10, 0.31], indicating higher scores in unproctored assessments. Moderator analyses revealed significantly smaller effects for measures that are difficult to research on the Internet. These results demonstrate that unproctored ability assessments are biased by cheating. Unproctored assessments may be most suitable for tasks that are difficult to search on the Internet.
ISSN:1015-5759
2151-2426
DOI:10.1027/1015-5759/a000494