Innovative Item Types
CUSTOM SOLUTIONS
Innovative Testing Solutions for Your Certification Program’s Unique Needs
No two programs are the same. When the right methodology doesn't exist, our team of experts creates it.
The Caviart Group is widely recognized as a leader in the development and implementation of innovative and advanced item types for certification and licensure examinations. We have extensive experience in human-scored performance tests as well as computer-delivered interactive and simulation examinations.
Several of our innovations have been awarded patents. Our work has been presented at leading industry conferences including the ATP Innovations in Testing conference and the ICE Exchange.
The assessment industry is increasingly moving toward performance-based and simulation-based testing as the standard for measuring true professional competence. The Caviart Group has been building these solutions for decades. In fact, these innovative item types are what sets us apart from the competition.
Want to learn more about our innovations? See some examples below.
Advanced Item Types
Case Analysis
Assessing Professional Judgment and Ethical Decision Making in Real-World Scenarios
Case analysis items ask candidates to apply professional and ethical judgment to complex, evolving scenarios that unfold over a series of steps — closely mirroring actual professional practice. Information may be limited, and the situation may change as the case develops, requiring candidates to synthesize available information, make sound judgments, and adapt as new details emerge.
These items are among the most authentic assessments available for high-stakes examinations. They are also highly efficient — requiring significantly less item writer time than traditional multiple-choice items while delivering richer, more defensible measurement.
Hot Spot
Precision Assessment for Visual and Spatial Professions
Hot spot items require candidates to use a cursor to identify specific areas or locations within a real-world image, making them particularly well suited to medical, architectural, and other visually oriented professions. Applications include identifying areas of clinical concern in medical imaging and measuring distances or relationships between locations within an image.
Performance-Based Assessments
Human-Scored Examinations for Skill Demonstration
Some competencies can only be assessed through direct performance. For candidates seeking certification as interpreters for the Deaf, we developed a system allowing candidates to be recorded performing sign language interpretation of structured stimulus presentations. Those recordings are distributed through a secure online platform to trained raters, with automated monitoring to ensure multiple ratings are applied per the scoring algorithm.
This system demonstrates our capability to design and manage complex, human-scored performance assessments at scale — an increasingly sought capability as the credentialing industry moves beyond multiple-choice toward more authentic measurement.
Custom Simulations
Simulated Sonogram Console
When testing with real patients isn't possible
Many professions, such as medical sonography, require the correct use of complex equipment to obtain the information required to make decisions such as medical diagnoses. Since the use of actual sonographic imaging equipment and real patients is impracticable for a large-scale testing program, a simulated sonogram console was developed that could be imbedded in a computer-based examination.
Our interactive console design allows candidates to set a number of the parameters including transducer type, system modality, velocity settings and scale parameters, etc. to simulate the process that would be used in a real examination to obtain and optimize the image captured.
Architecture Graphic Design
Computer-Based Scoring for Complex Constructed Responses
For many years, candidates for architectural licensure were required to produce hand-drawn designs under examination conditions, scored by trained architect raters — a process that was time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to standardize. Our architectural graphic design simulation replaced this process with a computer-delivered environment in which candidates manipulate elements to achieve specified design goals. The resulting work is scored by a computer program that evaluates the spatial relationships between elements against a predetermined set of criteria, delivering consistent, defensible results at scale.
Nuclear Density Gauge
When testing with real equipment isn't safe
Engineering technologists must have a thorough understanding of this highly dangerous and complex gauge which contains radioactive materials. We created the computer simulated gauge that completely recreates the experience of interacting with the nuclear density gauge without the risk associated with a real-world exercise.
Mainframe Wiring
Replacing the complications and cost of real-world wiring
Installing complex computer equipment, such as a mainframe computer, requires a thorough understanding of the how to correctly link all of the various system components. By simulating the experience in 3-D images, the candidate can be tested under conditions that are very similar to the actual experience.
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