On the first day of the
conference, there was a pre-conference workshop. I joined one of the workshops
about “Developing Online Adaptive Tests Using Open-Source Concerto Platform”. I
learnt a lot, and it’s beneficial for my own study. In the afternoon, after the
pre-conference workshop, the conference officially started. Three big names
opened the conference: Prof. Dr. Sonja Rohrmann (Dean of the Faculty of
Psychology), Dr. Alina A. von Davier (IACAT president), and Dr. Andreas Frey
(conference chair). After the opening, there was a keynote speech from Dr.
Anthony Zara from Pearson VUE, the new IACAT president. The session continued
with a parallel paper presentation. At the end of the first day, there was a
welcome dinner where all participants met and talked to each other. It was a
good opportunity to interact with many big names of researchers and
practitioners in the CAT field.
The second day was the same as
the first, with more paper presentations. I really enjoyed the paper
presentations because I got much insight into my study from the presenters. There
were two keynote lectures on the second day from Wim J. van der Linden (the
developer of the Math Garden test) and Ying Cheng (Department of Psychology,
University of Notre Dame, USA).
The third day was the best part
of this conference because I had my presentation. I presented my paper entitled
“The Effect of Computerized Adaptive Testing on Motivation and Anxiety: A
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”. I did not expect that there would be many audiences in my session. The room was full of people. Our theme was “test-taking
experience”, slightly different from the other “technical” papers. The best
part of this presentation was that the chair of our session was the author who
inspired me a lot (Dr. Steven Wise). I cited many of his papers in my works.
And after my presentation, I got a lot of positive feedback as well as new connections.
Overall, I am grateful for such
an opportunity to attend the conference. This year’s IACAT conference showcased
various perspectives concerning psychological testing and related research
methodology. The pre-conference workshop, keynote lectures, and paper
presentations at this conference greatly helped my thesis. In addition, I find
a lot of new colleagues, and it is possible for us to collaborate in the
future.