Comparison of Online Versus Paper Spatial Testing Methods

Spatial visualization skills have been shown to be critical to the success of engineers and engineering students, and the assessment and remediation of those skills is growing in engineering curricula across the country. At Michigan Technological University, spatial skills of freshmen engineering students have been tested with the use of the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) since 1993. This test has traditionally been administered with paper tests where students record their answers on a scantron form. Due to changes in university computing resources in the 2013-2014 academic year, the opportunity arose to test the freshmen through a Learning Management System (LMS). In the fall of 2014, over 450 of the engineering freshmen were administered the PSVT:R with the traditional paper test method, while approximately the same number took the test through the LMS. Testing half of the students with each method allowed for a comparison to be made between the two testing methods. This paper compares scores from the paper version of the test with scores on the on-line version of the test to determine if students perform equally on the on-line and paper forms of the test.