Development of an Item Bank for the Assessment of Knowledge on Biology in Argentine University Students

MARCOS CUPANI TATIANA CASTRO ZAMPARELLA GISELLA PIUMATTI

JOURNAL OF APPLIED MEASUREMENT

Journal of Applied Measurement

Año: 2017 vol. 18

1529-7713

The calibration of Item Banks provides the basis for computerized adaptive testing that ensures high diagnosticprecision and minimizes participants? test burden. This study aims to develop a bank of items to measure thelevel of Knowledge on Biology using the Rasch Model. The sample consisted of 1219 participants that studied indifferent faculties of the National University of Córdoba (mean age = 21.85 years, SD = 4.66; 66.9% are women).The items were organized in different forms and into separate subtests, with some common items across subtests.The students were told they had to answer 60 questions of knowledge on biology. Evaluation of Rasch modelfit (Zstd ≤ ±2.0), differential item functioning, dimensionality, local independence, item and person separation(>2.0), and reliability (>.80) resulted in a bank of 180 items with good psychometric properties. The bank providesitems with a wide range of content coverage and may serve as a sound basis for computerized adaptive testingapplications. The contribution of this work is significant in the field of educational assessment in Argentina.