Aligning evaluation with achievement objectives: automated exams based on Bloom's taxonomy

Resumen

How many of social sciences students passing introductory statistics courses develop the expected skills to make a meaningful use of statistics? Our diagnosis suggests that an important part of them achieve this through memorization and repetition. This communication reports the in-progress effort to improve the quality of the evaluation of an introductory statistics course in Psychology degree, National University of Córdoba (Argentina). There is a specific demand on the qualifications required of students who pass the subject, which combines with a significant volume of students, so it is necessary to ensure the validity of the evaluations and the automation of their administration and correction. The work consists of the construction of examination items classified according to three criteria: elementary thematic unit it evaluates, cognitive level and degree of difficulty, so that precision exams can be built. Using exams R package, the proposal is applicable to classroom or on-line courses.