Web Application for the Development and Conducting Complex Cognitive and Subject-Knowledge Diagnostics

Purpose of the study. To substantiate a formalized model of diagnostic tools for assessing cognitive qualities of students and to describe a web-based application that includes a constructor for developing and conducting comprehensive cognitive and subject-knowledge diagnostics, as well as a module for accumulating diagnostic results with built-in statistical analysis of their distributions. Materials and methods. A formal model of a diagnostic block B = (P, S, R, E) is proposed, where P is the presentation procedure, S is the stimulus, R is the response method, and E is the evaluation rule. The versatility of the model is achieved through the independence of its components: the same stimulus can be used in different procedures and evaluated in different ways. A client-server web application was implemented using modern web technologies. Response evaluation is performed on the server through an extensible registry of strategies, which ensures uniformity of evaluation rules and eliminates the possibility of result tampering on the client side. Reproducibility is ensured by storing copies of all components of the diagnostic block. Descriptive statistics methods are used for result analysis: calculation of sample mean, variance, percentiles, and z-scores. Results. A web application has been developed that includes a test constructor with manual configuration and a scenario wizard for 12 typical cognitive methods (Digit Span, N-back, Stroop, Corsi, Go/No-Go, etc.); a test player with recording of reaction time and response status; server-side evaluation with saving copies of components; and a statistical analysis page with distributions of indexes and z-scores of participants relative to the group. The versatility of the model allows using the constructor for cognitive, subject, and comprehensive knowledge-cognitive diagnostics, overcoming the traditional division of pedagogical and psychological assessment tools. Conclusion. The proposed formal model and the web constructor implemented on its basis provide a unified technological framework for constructing different types of diagnostics. The application reduces the complexity of preparing and conducting diagnostics, ensures objectivity of data recording, and provides teachers with statistical analysis tools. The developed application is publicly available at: http://89.127.209.212/ .