Emeka, C. A., & West, M., & Sosnowski, J., & Herman, G. L., & Zilles, C., & Silva, M. (2025, June), Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?  Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/56303

\bibitem{asee_peer_56303}
  Emeka, C. A., \& West, M., \& Sosnowski, J., \& Herman, G. L., \& Zilles, C., \& Silva, M. (2025, June), \emph{Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?}
  Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada .
  https://peer.asee.org/56303

Chinedu Alexander Emeka, Matthew West, Jim Sosnowski, Geoffrey L Herman, Craig Zilles, and Mariana Silva.  "Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?".  2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada , 2025, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2025.  https://peer.asee.org/56303 Internet.  20 Aug, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_56303}
  Chinedu Alexander Emeka, Matthew West, Jim Sosnowski, Geoffrey L Herman, Craig Zilles, and Mariana Silva.
  "Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?".
  \emph{2025 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada , 2025, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2025.
  https://peer.asee.org/56303 Internet.  20 Aug, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_56303
author = "Chinedu Alexander Emeka, Matthew West, Jim Sosnowski, Geoffrey L Herman, Craig Zilles, and Mariana Silva"
title = "Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?"
booktitle = "2025 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2025"
month = "June"
address = "Montreal, Quebec, Canada "
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/56303}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In this full, empirical research paper, we investigated whether the use of a computer-based testing center (CBTC) impacts students’ test anxiety. Increasing student enrollment and the desire to test computational skills are leading some large universities to adopt computer-based testing centers. In a CBTC, students are able to take their exams asynchronously (i.e., at different times of their choosing) using institutional computers secured by a firewall to prevent unauthorized Internet access. We compared a CBTC setup to a second potential method of administering exams at scale for engineering students. Under the second method, students complete their tests in class synchronously (i.e., at the same time) using their own computers, which are not secured by a firewall to limit unauthorized Internet access. This method of administering exams may be referred to as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

We ran a crossover experiment in a large engineering course, varying the testing modality used by students for each exam. Students took three of their six exams in the CBTC and the other three exams under the BYOD format. We administered a validated instrument on test anxiety after each exam and collected data on students’ exam scores. Overall, 149 students participated in the study and completed all the surveys. At the end of the semester, we also conducted interviews with a small number of students to learn more about perceptions of the two testing environments.

The raw data results suggest that both test anxiety was lower and performance was higher in the CBTC format than the BYOD format, but the effect of exam modality might be less important than when in the exam period that the students took their BYOD exams.  We
explain this interaction in detail and present recommendations for computer-based examinations.
AU  - Chinedu Alexander Emeka
AU  - Matthew West
AU  - Jim Sosnowski
AU  - Geoffrey L Herman
AU  - Craig Zilles
AU  - Mariana Silva
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Do Centralized Testing Centers Influence Test Anxiety for
Engineering Students?
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/56303
ER  -