greatest technological challenge in Nigeria is how to establish reliable cost effective Internet connectivity. In a country where only about 0.6% of the populace has home personal computers, the few reliable Internet providers who have invested huge sum of money in the business have a very small clientele.
2.4 COMPARISM
Computer-based tests offer several benefits over traditional paper-and-pencil or paper-based tests. Technology based assessment provide opportunities to measure complex form of knowledge and reasoning that is not possible to engage and assess through traditional methods (Bodmann and Robinson, 2004). In Nigeria, employers now conduct aptitude test for job seekers through electronic means; the universities and other tertiary institutions are registering and conducting electronic examination for their students through the internet and other electronic and networking gadgets. Similarly, different examination bodies in the country such as West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), and National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), among others register their students through electronic means (Olawale and Shafii, 2010). Computer and related technologies provide powerful tools to meet the new challenges of designing and implementing assessments methods that go beyond the conventional practices and facilitate to record a broader repertoire of cognitive skills and knowledge (Mubashrah, Tariq and Shami, 2012).
In Nigeria, the mandate to conduct entrance examination into tertiary educational institutions (Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education & related/similar institutions) is vested in a body called Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Thus, every year, JAMB conducts Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) and forwards the results to the candidates’ institutions of choice for selection and admission. Over the years, the UTME by JAMB has been in a paper and pencil test (PPT) form, and has been characterized by a lot of fraudulent practices ranging from leakage of examination papers, use of machineries of all sorts by candidates, bribe taking by examination officials, impersonation, use of unauthorized gadgets, and so on (Osuji, 2012). In order to eliminate or minimize incidence of the vices, and/or other reasons, JAMB in 2013 introduced the computer based testing (CBT) form of UTME and gave massive publicity and sensitization on it. JAMB gave the advantages of CBT to include increased delivery of test items that have been calibrated and delineated according to their pertinent item characteristics (instructional level objectives, difficulty level, discrimination level and functionality of distracters, efficient administration of examination and scoring of tests, reduced costs for many elements of the testing lifestyle and logistics, improved test security resulting from electronic transmission.
The Nigerian university system began the post-JAMB Screening Examinations in 2005 as a way of validating the scores obtained by candidates in the University Matriculation Examinations (UME) organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Prior to this time, there had been a growing concern about the conduct, authenticity and reliability of the UME for the purpose of selecting qualified prospective candidates into Nigerian universities. There was also the insinuation from many quarters as to the likely compromise of the examination body, which led many to conclude that it does not have the required capacity to discharge its responsibility any longer. It was in response to the above situation that the University of Ilorin became one of the first to start organizing post-JAMB test as far back as 2005, using the Pen-and Paper Testing (PPT) format, up till 2007. As the 2007/2008 academic session of the University ended May 2008, prospective candidates for admission into the university for 2008/2009 academic session were notified that the senate of the university has decided that admission exercise would be by CBT. However, the PPT presented many problems some of which include: 1). Tedious processes as the examination was conducted at various and distant centres simultaneously and marked manually. 2). High risks of accidents during travels by both the university staff involved and the prospective students for the paper examination. 3). Cost of conduct of the examination on the part of the university including honoraria for invigilators, coordinators, markers collators and other allied staff. 4). Subjective scoring and plausible manipulation of results. 5). Late release of results and missing grades. 6). Bank draft method of payment by candidates riddled by fraud, loss of money, stress and trauma. Thus, observation has revealed that the conduct of post-JAMB screening examinations and other examinations with a large population of students in the university, using the PPT method, was beset with numerous limitations culminating in invalid and unreliable outcomes. To overcome these challenges and forge ahead in an increasing ICT-propelled society, the University of Ilorin commenced the CBT method for its post-JAMB screening exercise in 2008. Since assessment of learning activities is a very important aspect of the education process, the outcome is employed to take many academic and administrative decisions.
Like any new introduction, this also had its own initial challenges especially regarding effective coordination of the exercise taking place in different centre locations across the country with a lot of attendant impropriety. Today, the University has got over the teething problems associated with the CBT and had indeed gone ahead to deploy this technology in the conduct of its other examinations including university-wide courses with large population of students of 500 and above. Typical of such courses are the General Studies, medical courses, where multiple-choice questions are used for testing, and courses in other disciplines, up to an appropriate academic level the technique is considered suitable for. Thus, the University of Ilorin has made its mark in this particular regard such that it can boast of using only three centres in Ilorin, Lagos and Minna for its nation-wide post-JAMB screening exercise while the use of CBT for conducting General Studies examinations is today, a common feature. This method, needless to say, represents a great deal of improvement over the former PPT method given the many advantages it came with, which include standardized examination questions, prompt and easy conduct by both the candidates and the concerned staff, elimination of incidence of malpractices, missing results and manipulations. Other justifications for the change-over from the PPT to CBT methods include quick release of results; generation of databank for admitted and registered students; quiet and comfortable test centres; secured test items; unbiased test administration and scoring; faster decision making; reduction in cases of impersonation and adequate coverage of course syllabus in examination questions.
There is no doubt therefore that technology today offers many new opportunities for innovation in educational assessment through rich new assessment tasks and potentially powerful scoring, reporting and real-time feedback mechanisms. One potential limitation for realizing the benefits of computer-based assessment in both instructional assessment and large scale testing comes in designing questions and tasks with which computers can effectively interface (i.e., for scoring and score reporting purposes) while still gathering meaningful measurement evidence.
