Support Computer Based Test as a Method for National Examination

Nowadays, our education has been improved along with the development in technologies. Technologies have become one of the basic buildings of modern society. Many countries now regard understanding it and mastering its basic skill and concept as very crucial in education. This is because it adds value to the process of learning and to the organization and administration of learning institutions (Kumar, 2006). Like what Kumar said before, not only in administrations process, technologies are also used in learning process. It is including the process of evaluating the students as well. In Indonesia, the process of evaluating the students is called national examination.  

National Exam (In Bahasa: Ujian Nasional, commonly abbreviated as UN or UNAS) is a standard evaluation system of primary and secondary education in Indonesia and the equation of quality of education levels among the areas that are conducted by the Center for Educational Assessment, The Department of Education. The Law of the Republic of Indonesia number 20 of 2003 states that, in order to control the quality of education nationwide to be evaluated as a form of accountability of education providers to the parties concerned. Further stated that the evaluations conducted by independent agencies on a regular basis, comprehensively, transparently, and systematically to assess the achievement of national education standards and the monitoring process evaluation should be done continuously. Evaluation of the monitoring process is carried out continuously and continuous in the end will be able to fix the quality of education. Improving the quality of education begins with the determination of the standard. Determination standards continue to rise is expected to encourage increased quality of education, which is the determination of educational standards is the determination of the limit value (Wikipedia, 2016).

 In doing national examination, Indonesia applies Computer Based Test (CBT) in some schools. CBT is one of the proofs that we use technologies in learning process. Computer Based Testing (CBT), also known as Computer-Based Assessment or e-exam is a method of administering tests in which the responses are electronically recorded, assessed, or both. It is commonly available for several admissions tests throughout the developed countries (Wikipedia, 2012). In some other countries, CBT is also known as Computer Aided Assessment (CAA), Computer Based Assessment (CBA), Online Assessment, E-Assessment and Web Based Assessment (Bull (1999), Haslington, Jupp (2000), Mckenna (2001), Elliot (2003),  Maddison (1983), Winship (2003), JISC (2008) and many others). According to Whittington, Bull & Danson (2000) Computer based examinations are the form of assessment in which the computer is an integral part of question papers’ delivery, response storage, marking of response or reporting of results from a test or exercise. Conole and Warburton (2005) defined CAA as ‘the use of computers for assessing students’ learning’. Bodmann and Robinson (2004) computer based tests offers several advantages over traditional paper and pencil test (PBT). That is why Indonesia tries to apply CBT, and it has been proven as the best method for national examination. As a result, schools who apply CBT are increase, started from 554 schools in 2015 became 4381 schools in 2016, hence, I do believe that the government should strive for applying CBT through all schools in Indonesia in order to improve the quality of education in Indonesia.

First of all, the advantage of applying CBT for national examination is we can save money. In 2015, the government spent Rp. 114 Billion for national exam, whereas in 2016, the government only spent Rp. 94 Billion. It means that we can save Rp. 20 Billion (Kemendikbud, 2016). We can use that money to supply another school’s facilities, henceforth they can apply CBT in their school later on, which means we can save more money for the next year, or we can use that money for another necessity of Education in Indonesia.

Secondly, CBT provides an easy and comfortable way to do the examination. If in PBT the students have to fill in their identity by circling answer sheet which take a very long time, in CBT, they just have to log in by typing their name, username, and password. And also in answering the question, they just have to click the answer. Beside it is very easy to be done; it also saves our time, so it gives us more time to think about the answer. In addition, most of the problem in PBT is the damage of answer sheet during distribution process; it really harmful for the students’ score, but CBT can guarantee the safety of our answer, so we do not need to be worry anymore. That makes CBT become comfortable, because we do not need to do circling, and we do not have to worry about our answer sheet. All we have to do is choose the best answer. Besides, the department of education receives the CBT result faster than PBT, which means the process of evaluation is also faster so they can immediately make decisions whether they will continue the learning system or not, or they can immediately fix the learning system.

And the third, CBT provides security from cheaters. The most secure facet of modern testing and the best defensible method against "Cheating 2.0" is computerization. Test items for computer based testing (CBT) are typically stored electronically and transported to the testing center in an encrypted state via a secure pipeline directly from the test services provider. When using secure output lines, the possibility of an information breach during transit is extremely low. This process is completely diverse from the transit of standardized paper and pencil exams, which require physical center shipment through the mail, creating somewhat easier access for cheaters. Furthermore, with computer-based testing, exams can have multiple forms, thousands more questions to choose from in creating an exam and a random nature that cannot be achieved through paper based testing. Computer based testing can be leveraged to eliminate the predictability and static nature of paper based testing, allowing for randomized item presentation, dynamic testing and secure transit of information to and from the testing center… all facets that make it substantially more difficult for cheaters (Meissner, 2011).

In addition, if we see from another aspect, CBT can help us to save the earth from global warming. As we know that one tree can produce 500 sheets of paper. While, there are 7.6 Million students who follow national exam. If one student spent at least 12 sheets of paper during national exam, it means we have to spend 9.12 Million pieces of paper, Can you imagine how many trees do we have to cut off for national exam in once? If all schools in Indonesia apply CBT, we can save so many trees, we can save the woods, we can save the earth from global warming, and we can save the humankind’s future.

Indeed, it is better for us to apply CBT in national examination. With all the advantages that have been explained above, I do believe as an education performer, we should do some efforts to prepare our school and ourselves for applying CBT in our education  system. And I also believe that the government should strive for applying CBT through all schools in Indonesia in order to improve the quality of our education.

References

Meissner, Dave. 2011. How to Fight Back Against Cheaters. Prometric Inc.

Yan Piaw, Chua. (2012). “Replacing paper-based testing with computer-based testing in assessment: are we doing wrong?”. Journal Social and Behavioral Sciences. 64, (2012), 655 – 664.

Alabi, Issa & Oyekunle. 2012. “The use of Computer Based Testing Method for the Conduct of Examinations at the University of Ilorin”. Journal of Learning and Development. 2, (3), 1-13.

Jami, Tariq & Shami. (2012). “Computer-Based Vs Paper-Based Examinations: Perceptions Of University Teachers”. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology. 11, (4), 1-11.

Temitayo, Adebisi & Alice. (2013). “Computer-Based Test (CBT) System for University Academic Enterprise Examination”. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research. 2, (8), 1-7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Exam_(Indonesia) [16 June 2016]

Kemendikbud. (2016). Lelang Pengadaan Naskah Ujian Nasional 2016 Dimulai Hari Ini.[Online]. Available: http://www.kemdikbud.go.id/main/blog/2015/11/-lelang-pengadaan-naskah-ujian-nasional-2016-dimulai-hari-ini-4886-4886-4886 [16 June 2016]