Considering the need for aligning testing with education reform efforts underway, the focus of researchers should be the contemporary rather than traditional approaches to computer-based assessment. Contemporary computer applications would allow for better analysis of the new kinds of process-oriented science instruction suggested by the science education reform efforts. Among contemporary computer applications, simulations appear to hold promises for large scale assessment. In figural response testing students manipulate pictorial tasks on a computer screen using a mouse to solve problems. The computer also grades student responses with a preset standard deviation range, thereby reducing the chances of students losing all credit for a question because they picked the wrong answer from a multiple response.
Students receive partial credit for partially correct answers.
In computerized adaptive testing the computer tailors a test according to an examinee's level of achievement and ability. Using computers for analyzing solution pathways is another emerging trend. The software functions as a ledger for recording the kinds of information the student searches and uses for problem solving using the videodisc. According to Young this anchored assessment technique has provided information on student performance in the solution space which otherwise would be obtainable only through verbal protocols and extensive transcription of data. In this study, problem solving protocols were registered in a way similar to recording verbal protocols in think-aloud procedures.