Cooley: CIL tests necessary tool for higher ed students
At last week’s meeting of the General Education Sub-Committee, statistics were provided by Computer Science Department Head Donald Cooley to councilmembers on the necessity of Computer Information Literacy (CIL) tests.
According to his documents, only 45 percent of students pass all six tests on their first attempt.
Cooley, who is working outside of the country, was absent during the meeting Tuesday when the council voted 14-2 to remove the CIL tests from the general education graduation requirements. Before becoming final, the issue will come before other USU committees, but in all likelihood, students who enter USU in fall 2011 will not be required to take the CILs in their current form.
In Cooley’s seven-page document, he recommended the testing remain in its current state.
“I believe that there are at least a few members of the committee who are not fully aware of the logistics associated with the current CIL system, and obviously questions remain about the need for a CIL requirement,” Cooley said.
“Obviously, my vote is to keep the CIL requirement and its funding model as (Committee Chairman) Norm (Jones) has proposed … I do not believe there is any other approach that is comparable in terms of cost or efficiency.”
CIL Director Alex Potter, an ex officio committee member, said the committee vote included a grandfather clause, which does not make the decision retroactive to include current students.
Other statistics showed that from 2006-10, pass rates have declined for each of the six tests, some by margins as high as 17 percent. In 2010 the first-try pass rates ranged from 60 percent of students for the Operating Systems segment to 95 percent on the Electronic Presentations segment.
Potter, who attended Tuesday’s meeting but does not hold a voting position, argued in favor of keeping the graduation requirement for CILs. He said studies have shown a correlation, modest but nonetheless existent, between students that complete their tests during their first years at USU and success in college.
“That means there’s something there,” Potter said.
Potter said a prevailing argument for removing the graduation requirement was that most students are already familiar with the material, a view he said is not reflected in the dropping pass rates.
“Half the people fail at least one on the first try,” Potter said. “I think the reason students don’t like doing it is because they think they know everything. The results don’t show that.”
Jones, the committee chairman, said the vote was focused on the graduation requirement and the information gained through the CIL testing will still be passed on to students in some form. He said options discussed include incorporating information literacy into English 2010 classes and having incoming students take an ethics test to activate their student identification cards.
“The faculty remains very concerned about the ethics stuff,” Jones said.
The CIL tests began in 1997 and Jones said at the time, 30-40 percent of students did not have computer skills. The university elected to create the six tests in place of a required class as other universities were doing at the time. In the 13 years since their inception, computer literacy has grown more and more common for the average student.
“At what point are we teaching you something you already know how to do?” Jones said.
Jones said the discussion of CIL changes have focused on revising the system to be more efficient rather than on outright abolishment.
“We are likely to see at least parts of the test, just in different places,” Jones said.
Jones also said the declining pass rates could be a function of students not being as prepared as they think they are, or could be related to the nature of what they’re being asked.
“We’re not saying the student body is smarter, or less smart,” Jones said. “As a graduation requirement, it wasn’t working well.”
He also said whatever form the CILs take, the new system will be in place before the graduation requirement officially disappears in July.
“Something will be replacing that test before it officially goes away,” Jones said.
Christie Fox, honors director at USU, also provided data to the General Education Sub-Committee. In an admittedly unscientific survey, Fox sent an email out to some 1,000 students asking whether the CILs should be kept, abolished, or revised. She received 136 responses of which 20 students said keep, 80 said abolish and 36 said revise. Even with the small sample size, Fox said the responses she received were thought out and representative.
“I think our students are thoughtful,” she said.
On the subject of declining pass rates, Fox said she knows of students personally who failed due to being more familiar with a Mac operation system than the PC systems used in the testing center.
“The commands are different,” Fox said, “I think that accounts for some of it.”
Fox favored removing the graduation requirement, but said a form of remediation for the studentbody is beneficial. She also agreed that the ethics portion of the test is needed but added that an exam might not be the most efficient way to educate students about plagiarism. In addition to her position in the honors department, Fox teaches a 1000-level course.
“I have cheating problems in that class every semester,” Fox said.
Potter said before the vote took place, committee members were invited by the CIL department to take the tests to familiarize themselves with the process. He said three members of the committee did so.
“Eleven people who voted against CIL don’t even know what we’re doing,” Potter said.
The committee is made up of representatives from each of the colleges on campus as well as various other departments and a student representative.
Fox said she did not take the tests herself, but was able to familiarize herself with the different test questions through a survey presented to faculty last spring.
“I feel like I had a pretty good idea of what was being tested,” Fox said.
Potter, who was vocally in opposition to removing the graduation requirement, said some council members likely took his department’s stance as related to job preservation, something he denies.
“My job is directly related but it transcends that,” he said. “It’s about the students getting the knowledge they need for college.”
– b.c.wood@aggiemail.usu.edu