The issue here is whether the assessment is administered via a paper-and-pencil written
format, via a computer or by live administrators, either by phone or in person. Live
administrators are typically required when the assessment is an interactive work sample
or interview.
More and more organizations are moving away from paper-and-pencil assessments to
computer-administered assessments. An important advantage of computer-administered
assessments is that responses can be automatically stored in a database and assessment
scores automatically generated. Computers are also capable of easily storing
multiple assessment items that can be mixed up to form different versions of an assessment
that measures the same KSAs. Multiple versions of an assessment help to better
ensure its security.
In recent years, organizations have begun using the Internet to administer assessments,
and some assessment companies now specialize in Internet-based assessments.
Although Internet-based administration has a great deal of appeal for many practitioners,
there are some important caveats with this type of assessment administration that
need to be considered. First, unless the assessment is proctored, there is no easy way of
knowing whether the individual taking the assessment is getting help from others or
possibly even having someone take the assessment for him or her. Because of this limitation,
unproctored Internet-based assessment should be used only as a preliminary
screen to weed out clearly unqualified candidates. Any Internet-based assessment
should be followed up with a more comprehensive assessment in a monitored and controlled
assessment environment. Alternatively, candidates can be brought into testing
centers where Internet-administered assessments can be properly monitored and proctored.
A more complete discussion of computer and Internet-based assessment issues
can be found in a paper by Potosky and Bobko.