Performance and Attitude of Children in Computer Based Versus Paper Based Testing Gavin Sim Department of Computing University of Central Lancashire United Kingdom grsim@uclan.ac.uk Matthew Horton Department of Computing University of Central Lancashire United Kingdom mplhorton@uclan.ac.uk Abstract: This paper reports the findings of an investigation of children’s performance and attitude towards a paper based and computer based test. Twenty children, aged between 7 and 8 of mixed gender, participated in this study using a commercial software application. The children’s attitude towards the software was captured through the use of a smarty-o-meter to indicate their level of preference and the performance was based on their tests scores. The conclusions highlight the children’s preference for using computer in their assessment and shows that there was no difference in performance between the two test modes. Introduction There is growing increase in the use of computers for assessment purposes within Higher Educational institutions globally (Sim, Holifield, & Brown, 2004). The UK governments’ aim is to introduce new online tests of information and communication technology skills at key stage 3 (age 13 to 14) by 2008. Currently pilot studies have been conducted within UK schools for the delivery of summative assessment via the web to determine the feasibility of this strategy (Ashton, Schofield, & Woodger, 2003; Nugent, 2003). This raises the questions of how acceptable the technique is to children, and is paper based comparable to computer based testing. There has been considerable research conducted into the comparability of computer based versus paper based testing (Pommerich, 2004; Zandvliet, 1997) which has mainly focused on adult learners. Clariana & Wallace (2002) indicate that there is mounting empirical evidence that identical paper-based and computer-based tests will not obtain the same results due to a phenomena known as ‘test mode effect’. Evidence to support this theory can be found in studies by (Russell & Haney, 1997) which showed students performing better on the computer test, whilst in another study students outperformed the computer based version when using paper (Federico, 1989). It has been argued that in presenting a test on computer, a qualitatively different testing experience is created (McDonald, 2002). There are numerous variables that impact on student’s performance when questions are presented on a computer, such as the quality of the monitor (Schenkman, Fukuda, & Persson, 1999), the way text is displayed on screen (Dyson & Kipping, 1997), reading from a monitor is slower than paper (Mayes, Sims, & Koonce, 2001) and the problems of obtaining a feel for the exam when only a single question is presented (Liu, Papathanasiou, & Hao, 2001). However, when including multimedia elements in the question these present additional issues, for example proving comparable alternatives for paper based versions (Bennett et al., 1999) and cognitive load (Cooper, 1990; Kirschner, 2002)