Date of Award
12-2015
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: Teaching English as a Second Language: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
James Robinson
Second Advisor
Eric Reynolds
Third Advisor
Isolde Mueller
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
testing smart technology assessment paper-based
Abstract
Mobile devices are becoming increasingly more ubiquitous. This trend is especially true with
young people. An instructor’s job is to best service their students. If there are possible testing
means that are available, it is the responsibility of instructors to know if these mobile devices are as
capable of performing assessments as traditional paper and pencil tests. It is the purpose of this
research to evaluate if there is a difference in actual performance in Mobile Device Testing (MDT)
versus Paper Based Testing (PBT) and if there are any perceived differences. Participants (N=150) of
university EFL learners in South Korea were broken into groups, two different EFL tests were given,
the majority received PBT first followed by the MDT and the remaining performed the tests in
reverse order. Upon completion of both tests, the participants completed a survey evaluating both
testing mediums. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), F-tests and t-tests were used to validate the
comparability of the two different EFL tests, check for overall correlation and test direct comparisons
of one group versus another. The results found that the tests were comparable in the performance
of the participants, there was no overall group that had a variance that could be attributed to the
testing medium, students perceived no difference in difficulty based on testing medium, and that
students actually preferred the MDT method over the PBT. These results indicate that MDT is a
viable alternative to PBT due to the comparability in performance and student motivational factors.
Recommended Citation
Gordon, Austen M., "Paper Based Testing vs. Mobile Device Based Testing in an EFL Environment: What’s the Difference?" (2015). Culminating Projects in English. 38.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds/38
