CLEAR Exam Review Spring 2022

CLEAR Exam Review Spring 2022, Volume 32, No. 1

• Abstracts and Updates, by George Gray- In Abstracts and Updates George Gray presents a chapter-by-chapter summary of Advanced Methods in Automatic Item Generation by Gierl, Lai, and Tanygin (2021). He also describes the gist of four recently published articles and offers a personal perspective on the topic. There is some overlap of references with the Dublin literature review described below, and we believe the two articles complement each other nicely.
• Legal Beat, by Dale Atkinson- Dale Atkinson describes a case in which limitations on the number of exam attempts were challenged under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The court ruled against the governing board, indicating they provided no evidence that a candidate passing the exam on the fifth attempt was less competent than one who passed on the fourth attempt. This case may have important implications for credentialing programs that limit the number of exam attempts.
• Recent CLEAR Quick Poll Results, by Carla Caro- CLEAR Quick Polls over the past few months have collected snapshot data on several topics related to licensure and certification examinations. Many organizations have turned to live remote proctoring as a solution to continue secure, standardized testing during the pandemic. Carla Caro summarizes the results of a Quick Poll on the use of live remote proctoring, supplemented with data from a CLEAR membership survey on the topic administered several months later. Responses are also presented from Quick Polls addressing limits and conditions placed on retaking exams, the number of exams required, and whether separate passing scores are required for multiple examinations. Finally, results are presented from a Quick Poll on changes in pass rates under the pandemic.
• A Consideration of Factors Affecting the Use of Automatic Item Generation (AIG) in Developing Items for Use in Certification and Licensure Assessments: A Review of the Literature, by Gemma Cherry, Conor Scully, Michael O'Leary, and Linda Waters- Cherry et al. of the Centre for Assessment, Research, Policy and Practice in Education (CARPE) in Dublin present a review of the literature related to automated/automatic item generation. Whereas the Abstracts and Updates column is organized by source and focuses primarily on a specific, seminal resource, this article is topically organized. It summarizes approaches to AIG, describes potential benefits of using AIG as well as critiques of the method, lays out recommendations for organizations that are considering using AIG for item development, and suggests directions for future research on AIG.