Does question order matter on online math assessments? A big data analysis of undergraduate mathematics final exams

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe sudden growth in online instruction due to COVID‐19 restrictions has given renewed urgency to questions about remote learning that have remained unresolved. Web‐based assessment software provides instructors an array of options for varying testing parameters, but the pedagogical impacts of some of these variations has yet to be examined.ObjectivesThe current study examines whether question order affects student performance on online college math assessments. Drawing on the literature of testing and math anxiety, we hypothesized that difficult questions near the beginning of an assessment would have a destructive effect on student confidence, which would in turn have a deleterious effect on their performance.MethodsWe employed an observational ‘big data’ methodology, analysing 23,468 final exams completed by students in 10 different courses over eight semesters at a Math Emporium in a large technical university in the eastern United States. Students were freshmen and sophomores enrolled in non‐engineering math courses. We regressed the final score on the difficulty level of the first and second questions, controlling for several other factors.Results and ConclusionsWe found that several factors—day of the week, amount of time before the deadline, number of minutes spent on the exam—have more of an impact on score than question order. This pattern was consistent across sexes.TakeawaysOur findings contradict some previous studies, which have found that difficult early questions degrade student performance, and that this affect is more pronounced in females. This work enriches our understanding of how students respond to online assessment.