research-article

Measuring Effects of Modality on Perceived Test Anxiety for Computer Programming Exams

Authors:

Robert Deloatch,

Brian P. Bailey,

Alex KirlikAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

Pages 291 - 296

https://doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2844604

Published: 17 February 2016 Publication History

Abstract

The modality students use to complete programming-centric exams is shifting from paper to computer. We developed and distributed a survey to investigate how exam modality affects student perceptions of test anxiety and performance during programming-centric exams. We examine the distribution of modality preference among students and understand how students cope with test anxiety. We found a majority of students report at least moderate perceived anxiety (rating -- 4 on 7-pt scale) on paper- (69%) and computer-based (64%) exams. Though moderate anxiety was experienced by a majority of the students, we found 1 in 5 students had no strategy to cope with anxiety. Additionally, we examine how students perceived anxiety during testing affects their thought process and behavior. We found computer-based exams were perceived as more beneficial to the quality and speed of student's solutions and a majority of students preferred computer-based testing (67%). Lastly, we introduce possible technological solutions to benefit students experiencing test anxiety while not impeding less anxious students.

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Cited By

López Solórzano JÁngel Rueda CVergara Villegas O(2024)Measuring Undergraduates’ Motivation Levels When Learning to Program in Virtual WorldsComputers10.3390/computers1308018813:8(188)Online publication date: 31-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13080188
Devathasan KCraig MDamian DBerg C(2024)Test Anxiety and Self-Efficacy in a Computer-Based Test EnvironmentProceedings of the 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education10.1145/3660650.3660651(1-7)Online publication date: 2-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660650.3660651
Beck LKraft PChizhik AMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Predicting Student Success in CS2Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499276(140-146)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499276
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Measuring Effects of Modality on Perceived Test Anxiety for Computer Programming Exams
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

February 2016

768 pages

ISBN:9781450336857

DOI:10.1145/2839509

General Chairs:
Carl Alphonce
University at Buffalo
,
Jodi Tims
Baldwin Wallace University
,
Program Chairs:
Michael Caspersen
Aarhus University
,
Stephen Edwards
Virginia Tech University

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 17 February 2016

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Univesity of Illinois College of Engineering Strategy Instructional Innovation Program

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SIGCSE '16: The 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

March 2 - 5, 2016

Tennessee, Memphis, USA

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SIGCSE '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 105 of 297 submissions, 35%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Cited By

López Solórzano JÁngel Rueda CVergara Villegas O(2024)Measuring Undergraduates’ Motivation Levels When Learning to Program in Virtual WorldsComputers10.3390/computers1308018813:8(188)Online publication date: 31-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13080188
Devathasan KCraig MDamian DBerg C(2024)Test Anxiety and Self-Efficacy in a Computer-Based Test EnvironmentProceedings of the 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education10.1145/3660650.3660651(1-7)Online publication date: 2-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660650.3660651
Beck LKraft PChizhik AMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Predicting Student Success in CS2Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499276(140-146)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499276
VanDeGrift TMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Post-Exam Videos for Assessment in Computing CoursesProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499273(230-236)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499273
Hedlefs-Aguilar MMorales-Martinez GVillarreal-Lozano RMoreno-Rodriguez CGonzalez-Rodriguez E(2021)Functional Measurement Applied to Engineering Students’ Test Anxiety Judgment for Online and Face-to-face TestsEuropean Journal of Educational Research10.12973/eu-jer.10.3.1599volume-10-2021:volume-10-issue-3-july-2021(1599-1612)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2021
https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.10.3.1599
Elizabeth GGarcia-Collantes AIsolde MJose DNorberto Y(2021)Information Integration Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Face-to-Face or Online Statistics Test Anxiety Judgments of Engineering StudentsEuropean Journal of Educational Research10.12973/eu-jer.10.1.2310:1(23-37)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.10.1.23
Tibubos AKrakau LRohrmann SRingeisen T(2021)Prüfungsängstlichkeit im KulturvergleichHandbuch Stress und Kultur10.1007/978-3-658-27789-5_19(351-373)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-27789-5_19
Tibubos AKrakau LRohrmann SRingeisen T(2020)Prüfungsängstlichkeit im KulturvergleichHandbuch Stress und Kultur10.1007/978-3-658-27825-0_19-1(1-23)Online publication date: 12-Feb-2020
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Piech CGregg CBarnes TGarcia DHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones M(2018)BlueBookProceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3159450.3159587(562-567)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
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Deloatch RBailey BKirlik AZilles CMark GFussell SLampe Cschraefel mHourcade JAppert CWigdor D(2017)I Need Your Encouragement!Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3025453.3025709(736-747)Online publication date: 2-May-2017
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