Assessing underlying technical skills

If a test taker did not complete the task correctly, one question would be whether he or she had the requisite technical skills. Technically, this access task requires test takers to open up a browser, type a word or phrase into the text entry box, and click on the Search button. They might additionally need to open a site and then navigate back to search engine. As an individual test taker completed this task, the computer would record clicks, typing and other actions. Based on the test taker's responses, additional discrete computer-based tasks might be presented (e.g., "Type the phrase 'Movie Listings' into the search box" or "Click on the button that will take you back to the search page") to assess the technical skills underlying this basic Access task.

Assessing underlying cognitive skills

Cognitively, this access task requires a test taker to select or invent a search term that would yield the requested information. Some of the words or phrases in the task description and scenario would be more likely than others to provide the information needed. For example, typing in the phrase "hole in the heart" in one browser would yield the results shown below, none of which would be likely to include the information needed.