May 2008

NCEES Considers Computer-Based Exams

As other professions move to computer-based licensing exams, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying is again looking into the possibility of computer-based FE and PE exams.

Last year, NCEES President Gene Corley, P.E., formed a task force to examine the issue after some NCEES members expressed concern that the engineering profession could be falling behind the curve. Among the professions that use computer-based licensing exams are architecture, landscape architecture, accounting, medicine, and veterinary medicine.

NCEES's recently formed Computer-Based Testing Task Force is the council's second time reviewing the issue. A task force in the mid-1990s shelved the idea of computer-based testing after a survey revealed that many potential candidates were not even aware of the licensing exams, let alone had a preference for exam format.

At the time, the council's reaction was "let's not put the cart before the horse," says Dave Curtis, P.E., chair of the current CBT Task Force. Instead of focusing on developing computer-based exams, the council bolstered its efforts to market the exams and build student awareness of the FE exam and licensure.

There are "still a lot of questions that need answers" before possible implementation of computer-based FE and PE exams, says Curtis, executive director of the Idaho Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. Some of those questions, he says, include the cost of changing to a new system, the length and format of exams, and exam security.

In August, the task force plans to present two motions at the council's annual meeting in Minneapolis. One is to conduct another market study. The other will seek authorization to contact computer-based testing vendors to determine their capabilities and gather suggestions on which exams could be converted.

If NCEES implements computer-based exams, Curtis says the exams most likely to change first would be those with higher numbers of candidates: the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam and the PE exams in civil, mechanical, and electrical and computer engineering. The surveying exams are also prime candidates even though they have fewer takers than the engineering exams, he adds.

Other format changes may also be adopted. For example, candidates may be allowed to answer fewer questions clustered around minimum competency or shorter, but additional, exam modules in which candidates would have to pass each module separately. This approach would make it more difficult for test takers to compensate for deficiencies in one area with high scores in another.

While the current engineering and surveying exams are given twice a year, computer-based testing would increase the opportunities to take the tests, says Curtis. It's also likely that fees would rise because of higher development and administration costs. Other professions have experienced a four-fold increase in the cost of an exam after moving to computer-based testing.

It's an issue the task force is taking very seriously, Curtis explains. If candidates don't value licensure, they may not be willing to pay for an exam that costs several times more than a pencil-and-paper one. "If the cost increases by a two- or three- or four-factor, "Curtis asks," at what point do we start getting diminishing returns?"