Offline and Online Computer-Assisted Evaluation

ICT-based training is one of the fundamental paradigms of modern education. With the increase in the performance of computing and communications equipment and the crystallization of new approaches in the education sciences (pedagogy, docimology, behavioural and learning psychology), complex educational systems tend to impose as indispensable working tools for modern education. Strong theoretical models and increasingly advanced information and communication technologies have led to a significant increase in the effectiveness of today's educational computer systems. The continued expansion of modern communications systems on a global and national scale and increased access to the Internet has led to the development and diversification of ways to disseminate the educational content in digital form. The significant development over the last decade of ICT and the implementation of more and more technologies in education are evidenced by the increasing supply of complex educational systems characterized by an ever higher quality. At present, information systems devoted to the educational process can be analysed in terms of several criteria: the objectives pursued; targeted users; educational services offered; the resources involved; ergonomics and performance of systems; purchase, implementation, and maintenance costs. In the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, within the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, there is a 19-year experience in designing, performing and implementing tests designed to be used in computer assisted self-training, self-assessment and evaluation modalities. There is a framework for designing tests and items that was distributed to most of the teachers and used when the tests were created. Thus, the erroneous didactic design of some docimological tests was avoided to a great extent and the performance of very thorough analyses of performances was possible, that were performed on a computer.