“Who wants to be eminent?”
– Assessment method and software
Katai Zoltan, katai_zoltan@ms.sapientia.ro

Abstract:
In this paper we are going to present such an assessment method and software which can make the evaluation phase of education exciting. The presented software is a classroom application of the famos Tv-game: „Who wants to be millionair?
The “Who wants to be eminent?” software is a user-friendly application, which you can access through the Internet as well. The software can be used by three different type of users: we can log in as teacher, responsive student or “spectator student”. Contrary to the TV-game, there can be several responsive students.
The software can be exploited in different operational modes. The classical testing mode has been implemented, when the students get the questions one after the other one and the software sums up the good answers at the end. In the implicit “eminent” mode the students have to answer 9 questions and if they answer all of them correctly, with the 1 point received officially means a 10 mark (in accordance with the marking system 1-10 used in Romania). There are two margin values as the 5 and the 8. The questions are grouped in three categories of difficulty. The responsive students can any time stop the process of their assessment; if they are contented with the result they have obtained and are not sure in the answers to the following questions. In this case they are transferred among the spectators. Should they give a wrong answer, their mark falls back to the closest marginal value. Every responsive student has the possibility of the three helps: 50-50, can ask for the statistics of the spectators’ answers, can chat with one of the spectators.
The “Who wants to be eminent?” software can be well used for examination, for subjects which allow the assessment based on testing. We suggest the following course of the examination:
·    Firstly we run the software – twice consecutively – in the “eminent” mode. At start, the first half of the class are responsive students and the rest spectators, then we invert the roles.
·    Then the program runs in classical testing operational mode.
·    We write the higher mark out of the two the student received, into the examination register.
By ending the examination with a traditional testing (which is generally accepted and which would have been performed anyhow) and by writing the higher mark, we ensure the fact that the student can only win from the “eminent” mode.
In order to be able to use this software in the classroom as well, we have developed a combined operational mode, too. In this case the responsive students get the first four questions in a traditional testing system. After answering the fourth question, the software displays the points reached by the student, which will be considered the first margin for the “eminent” mode starting at this moment (the next margin will automatically be set for three points higher). The students who have “fallen out” will continuously take part in the testing as spectators: “post eminent” testing.
The classroom variant of the software “models” the teacher, who pays attention to the stress at the start, makes help possible when the student has problems, is ready to take into account the knowledge revealed after the end of the test.
The whole class is working, as the questions appear on the screen of each student and they have to answer. Furthermore, with the help options the whole class is part in the assessment of the students. The “eminent” mode gives a “legal” frame to the way the whole class can help the responsive students. All these mean an extra resource in the regularly preparation for the next class.