Computer literacy tests streamlined for next year
Students can expect to see some changes in the Computer and Information Literacy exams next year.
CIL director Stacie Gomm said the goal is to make the CIL exams more time-efficient, and one of the ways to do this is to “get rid of a lot of the fluff.” This “fluff” includes tasks such as the bolding and italicizing text in the word processing exam.
How did Gomm’s department decide what was “fluff” and what wasn’t?
“Research was done … to measure the incoming freshmen level of computer literacy,” Gomm said. “[To find out] what incoming students already know.”
She said the results were worse than expected.
“I was quite shocked. I thought the competency level of incoming freshmen would be higher than it was,” Gomm said.
Two hundred incoming freshmen were selected to take all six CIL exams during Connections Week 2003. Of these, only 39 percent passed the ethics exam, and only 59 percent passed the spreadsheet exam.
Utah State University faculty was also sent surveys, Gomm said. The purpose of these surveys was to find out which skills were necessary for students to have in order to be successful in their classes.
The outcome of these two surveys was compiled to compare where students are to where they need to be, Gomm said. The result: major changes in the CIL exams.
Gomm said these changes were necessary.
“How can you keep something static when everything is changing around you?” Gomm said, adding she believes something like this needs to be done every two to three years, just to keep up with the constant technological changes.
Emily Taylor, a sophomore majoring in accounting, agrees changes needed to be made. She has taken and passed all six exams this year on the first try.
“Some of the questions on those tests … if you don’t know how to answer them, then what are you doing in college?” Taylor said. “We learned these things in elementary school.”
Joe Harris, a freshman in aerospace engineering, disagrees.
“I think if you are dropping the easier sections of the CIL tests there really isn’t a point to them,” Harris said. “The CIL tests are supposed to test our literacy and not our ability to take the tutorials online,” which is what students will have to do in order to pass the more difficult material.
Jared Larsen, a freshman in economics, said, “Dropping the basic parts of the test on a test that is supposed to test your basic literacy skill voids the purpose of [the tests].”
When asked if the tests will be more difficult to pass, Gomm said students don’t need to worry.
“I don’t think they will be easier or harder,” she said. “I think they’re going to be different.”
One change is that the e-mail exam has been eliminated. According to the CIL Web site, most students can send and receive e-mails, but a few have problems when it comes to sending attachments. As a result, this task has been moved to the information resources exam, replacing downloading a file.
The operating systems exam has been changed to be “completely concept-based, meaning it will consist of multiple choice, true false, matching, and multiple answer questions about using a computer,” according to the CIL Web site at http://cil.usu.edu. This change came as response to the fact that most students have no trouble manipulating files, so it was removed from the test.
A new test has been added to take the place of the e-mail exam. This test will require students to demonstrate skills in Microsoft PowerPoint or Corel Presentations. More than 75 percent of the faculty responded in the survey sent out that this skill would help in their classes.
Some minor changes have been made to the word processing and spreadsheet exams as well. More information about the changes can be found on the CIL Web page at http://cil.usu.edu/changes.htm.
If students have started taking the tests, Gomm recommends going in to finish them before August 2004. Otherwise, they must be prepared to take an extra test.
-sophisan@cc.usu.edu