Experts in the test domain speaking: Adnan Maakoul

I am Adnan Maakoul, 40 years old and active in the field of digital formative and summative testing for over 8 years. Within this domain, I have held a variety of roles, from functional design to project management. From those different perspectives and from my current role as Product Manager of the new Optimum Assessment Platform, I know better than anyone that there is quite a lot behind that unique digital test moment. 

 

Challenge

A digital test offers many and varied possibilities when it comes to question formats. You might therefore expect the average digital test to be highly differentiated in this respect. However, the opposite is true. Testing and examining organisations often choose the familiar path and vary little or not at all with different types of questions. The true potential of (especially) the summative assessment is thus not fully exploited in my experience.

Preference for multiple choice questions

Many people immediately think of digital testing as an exam with with multiple-choice questions. Practice also shows that the one-out-of-more choice question is by far the most commonly used question type in digital (summative) tests internationally. In my view, the transition from paper to digital tests is only the first step. Expanding the number of digital question types appropriate to the subject matter ultimately makes all the difference! To date, however, this has proved quite a challenge within the field of testing and examining.

Incidentally, in the HR assessment business, we see that the test is already being used much more widely as a digital tool by utilising more different question formats.

Test platform capabilities

In my view, for summative tests in particular, the solution lies with the testing platform. The underlying digital tool should allow very easy switching between different question forms. With a well-thought-out and solid construction process, the platform of the future offers a smart way to make content quickly available in different manifestations, even at different knowledge levels!