Making Testing Less Trying: Lessons Learned from Operating a Computer-Based Testing Facility

This Innovative Practice Full Paper describes lessons learned from and operational details of a full-scale Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF) over a period of almost 4 years. The CBTF has grown into a key resource for enabling the graceful scaling of many of the largest classes in our College of Engineering. In Fall 2017, the CBTF served 21 courses from seven different departments and over 6,000 unique students. Over 52,000 exams were delivered, including 3,500 final exams.This paper discusses five main aspects of our CBTF. First, we present the basic operation of the CBTF. Second, we discuss the precautions we take to maintain a secure exam environment. Third, we discuss how we support students that require testing accommodations like extra time and/or a distraction-reduced environment. Fourth, we discuss how we organize our policies to handle exceptional circumstances with minimal intervention by faculty. Finally, we discuss the cost of operating the CBTF and how it compares to traditional exams and online services.