On Thursday, September 4, a portion of a full day's worth of conference programming from the 2014 conference will be broadcast online for NCTA members who register to participate as a member of the virtual audience. The online, virtual audience will receive a live stream of the sessions to their desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device. Virtual audience members will be able to use social media, e.g. Facebook or Twitter, to connect and create a community with other members of the virtual audience and will participate in all Q & A sessions by submitting questions in real time. As well, those who register for the virtual conference will have access to the sessions via a recorded archive after the conference. If you are not able to view all of the sessions in real time, you will be able to view the entire package at your convenience at a later date.

The early bird registration fee for the virtual conference option is $75.00 for members and $125.00 for non-members. The fee will increase to $100.00 for members and $175.00 for non-members beginning July 12, 2014. Members who register for the virtual conference will receive a link in their registration confirmation that will allow them to join the virtual audience on September 4th. An FAQ with information about how to prepare your computer or device to view the live stream will be posted to the conference web site and will be included with a reminder email sent by NCTA on Tuesday September 2nd.

Questions about the virtual conference can be sent to conference@ncta-testing.org.

Virtual Conference Schedule

All times are given in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)

Thursday September 4, 2014

This session is the second in the Empowered by Psychometrics series, which began at last year's conference. The goal of this series is to help campus testing offices transition towards becoming campus assessment centers which, in addition to providing testing services, also actively offer expertise to the faculty and administration on test development and educational measurement. This session serves as an introduction to psychometrics. In particular, it will provide in-depth coverage of both reliability and validity, the foundation on which all tests are built. It will also cover the basics of scaling and norming, two critical concepts in understanding how to interpret test scores correctly. Time will be provided at the end for audience members to ask questions.

In the realm of testing, the unfortunate reality is that we are all susceptible to the attempts of students who cheat during testing. In this workshop/open forum, we will identify common and unusual ways that students cheat and, at times, may not get caught. We will also offer alternative methods in your testing centers to combat this troublesome issue and identify ways to stop it if at all possible. All attendees will get an opportunity to discuss their past issues with cheating, current problems, and possible alternatives for addressing this issue in the future.

This presentation will provide an overview of emerging new directions in testing and future innovations that will alter current practices in the testing industry. Topics include recent application of social media strategies that change how tests are developed, real time creation of exams through item cloning on the fly, future use of examinee-owned devices for high stakes off-line testing, alternate test administration models that will challenge the current test delivery paradigm, future advances in measuring human behavior that could create a new focus for psychometrics, application of psychopharmacology to mitigate test security risks, and emerging standards that will guide future directions for on-line remote proctoring. The implications of these trends and innovations will be considered along with their potential impact on college testing.

In the past ten years, incredible changes in test security, both good and bad, have occurred. While new technologies have created ever-greater risks to reliable test results, other innovations have empowered test program leaders with new tools to better protect the tests. As we look ahead, the challenges will not only be different but also tougher. Meeting these challenges will require creativity, technology, and, of course, funding to invent new methods and tactics in the ongoing battle to achieve test results that matter. This session will explore answers to the question, "What will test security look like in the coming years?" A panel of test security veterans from across the testing industry will look back over the last ten years and give us a glimpse into the future of test security over the next ten years. During this session, panelists will offer their perspectives on the major challenges facing the testing industry, and the audience will have an opportunity to reflect on the comments and discuss the implications of these changes on campus testing offices and the future of NCTA.