newbie question: pre-testing (how to validate?)

Beowulf · science forum beginner Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 5

I am a college teacher wanting to do some classroom research, could use
some help. I want to have my [online "Anatomy and Physiology I"] students
take a pre-test at the start of the semester then again at the end of the
semester (comprehensive final); both tests would choose randomized
questions from a question databank of questions I design, on topics
covered in the course.

My question is, how can the pre-test be valid, since I would think
students would not take it serious as they would the post-test (final
exam). Students taking the pre-test would know little and score poorly,
perhaps causing them to just randomly answer questions in despair, not
take the questions serious, or not even answer questions. I can not
really make the pre-test worth any points, since students will be expected
to score poorly on it. So how can the pre-test really be valid in doing a
paired student t test, etc.?

I had a couple of semesters of statistics in grad school, but that was
many years ago, so I only know basic statistics. Is there some better
design or way of statistically evaluating student learning in the course
that I do not know of?

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