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Exercise2

Exercise 2: Design a Driver's Test

Sketch the design of a automobile driver's license examination for your state or country. Think about the following questions:

• What are the claims you want to make about newly licensed drivers?
• What are the relevant proficiencies? How are they related to each other and the claims?
• What would constitute evidence of those proficiencies? How are the observable variables defined? How are they related to the proficiencies?
• How can we structure situations to elicit that evidence?
• What kinds of presentation environment are necessary to support that data collection?
• What other issues do we need to worry about?

RGA My experience with this exercise has been that people have no problem coming up with various things they would like to see on the Driver's test. However, as different groups of people focus on different aspects of the problem we can usually get a lively discussion going about people's solutions. I hope some of you will post your solutions here.

One anecdote about this exercise is worth sharing. We had been using the exercise for some time when a group of people charged with designing a licensing exam for truck drivers approached us about a possible consulting arrangement. We never entered into a formal arrangement; however, they did contact me and discuss what they did after they completed their work. An interesting feature of their problem was that they had three modes of testing available: (a) the written test, (b) a simulator (I've forgotten if this was a computer simulation, or an off-road track), and (c) driving on the local roads. A great deal of their deliberations were about which claims were bested tested in which delivery mode. Thus, the Presentation Model? turned out to be key. I encouraged them to publish their experiences, and if they do, I will reference that publication from here.