Teaching Standardized Test Administration Using Virtual Examinees: Rationale, Validity, and Future Directions

Teaching graduate students to accurately administer and score standardized tests is challenging. This article presents one of the only responses in the last 20 years to the call by Slate, Jones, and Murray (1991) and more recently by Loe, Kadlubek, and Marks (2007) to implement technological advances that could improve how students are trained to administer standardized assessments. The article provides the rationale for computer-simulated examinees on students' personal computers and describes software that provides immediate and specific feedback using a virtual environment to simulate an examinee for standardized intelligence or achievement tests. Data analysis shows preliminary evidence of the validity of simulated examinees for learning standardized test administration, positive relationships with standardized administration learning goals, and positive feedback from students using the software. Limitations, lessons learned, and implications for future work are examined.