extended · article · 2021

Maintaining item banks with the Rasch model: An example from wave optics

Džana Salibašić Glamočić; Vanes Mešić; Knut Neumann; Ana Sušac; William J. Boone; Ivica Aviani; E. Hasović; Nataša Erceg; Robert Repnik; Vladimir Grubelnik; Benjamin D. Wright

Item banks are generally considered the basis of a new generation of educational measurement. In combination with specialized software, they can facilitate the computerized assembling of multiple preequated test forms. However, for advantages of item banks to become fully realized it is important that the item banks store a relatively large number of valid test items. In this paper, we demonstrate how the Rasch model is used for integrating new items into an existing wave optics item bank. First, we identified and applied a set of criteria for selecting 18 linking items from our initial item bank. In order to integrate 12 newly developed items, we combined the 18 linking items with the 12 newly developed ones into one test and administered this test to 106 postinstruction physics students from 4 universities in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was determined that the 12 ...