Understanding and improving students’ testing experiences in large-scale computer science and other STEM courses

Computerized exams are becoming increasingly common for computer science courses and large enrollment classes, generally. At several institutions, faculty have adopted a Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF) to administer computerized exams. However, despite the benefits of the CBTF, there are concerns from students that the CBTF testing setup leads to negative experiences. Consequently, we conducted research on how the testing configurations typically used in a CBTF environment impact students’ testing experiences. We focused primarily on test anxiety due to its harmful impacts. We conducted a year-long experiment to measure test anxiety in the CBTF, comparing that to a second setup that may be characterized as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). In this dissertation, the results of the experiment are reported. We found that the CBTF did not lead higher test anxiety or diminished performance among students, either for CS students or non-CS students in engineering departments. Additionally, we conducted research on fairness considerations for question variants on programming exams, which are often used for large-scale exams in a CBTF setting (and in some other contexts). We found that students’ fairness concerns were not associated with whether they had received the harder versions of questions on exams, but rather, were tied to lower overall performance in a course. Finally, we share findings from a study on second-chance testing, a promising approach for mitigating students’ test anxiety and improving outcomes and experiences in their courses. Students reported that the opportunity for second-chance testing would reduce test anxiety by 30%. This is noteworthy, as second-chance testing can be deployed at marginal cost in a CBTF environment. Taken together, this dissertation provides key insights to CS and other STEM instructors for effective testing at scale.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Emeka, Chinedu Alexander

Contributors dc:contributor

• Zilles, Craig
• Lewis, Colleen
• Silva, Mariana
• West, Matthew
• Fox, Armando

• Assessment
• Programming
• Testing
• Anxiety

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Chinedu Emeka

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129517

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129517