Automated Test Assembly in R: The eatATA Package

Combining items from an item pool into test forms (test assembly) is a frequent task in psychological and educational testing. Although efficient methods for automated test assembly exist, these are often unknown or unavailable to practitioners. In this paper we present the <span style="font...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psych
Main Authors: Benjamin Becker, Dries Debeer, Karoline A. Sachse, Sebastian Weirich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8611/3/2/10
Description
Summary:Combining items from an item pool into test forms (test assembly) is a frequent task in psychological and educational testing. Although efficient methods for automated test assembly exist, these are often unknown or unavailable to practitioners. In this paper we present the <span style="font-family: monospace;">R</span> package <span style="font-family: monospace;">eatATA</span>, which allows using several mixed-integer programming solvers for automated test assembly in <span style="font-family: monospace;">R</span>. We describe the general functionality and the common work flow of <span style="font-family: monospace;">eatATA</span> using a minimal example. We also provide four more elaborate use cases of automated test assembly: (a) The assembly of multiple test forms for a pilot study; (b) the assembly of blocks of items for a multiple matrix booklet design in the context of a large-scale assessment; (c) the assembly of two linear test forms for individual diagnostic purposes; (d) the assembly of multi-stage testing modules for individual diagnostic purposes. All use cases are accompanied with example item pools and commented <span style="font-family: monospace;">R</span> code.
ISSN:2624-8611