Islamabad:The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the National Testing Service (NTS), Pakistan, organised the first-ever training of trainers (TOT) workshop on ‘Effective Test Item Construction Techniques’ for the faculty members belonging to higher education institutions of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The main objective of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to the faculty members to design and construct test items for effective examination and evaluation system. HEC has selected 13 social sciences departments under the project titled “Development/Strengthening of Selected Departments of Social Sciences and Humanities.” The key objectives of the project included faculty development and linkages with other professional organizations. However, the workshop also included faculty members from other than the selected departments.

The main topics under discussion during the workshop included test planning (identify learning outcomes; preparing a table of specifications; and choosing appropriate test item types); test preparation (constructing good test items; reviewing and editing items according to guidelines; arranging items and groupings; preparing directions for the test and individual items; deciding on method of scoring); and test analysis and revision (performing test/item analysis to determine difficulty, discrimination and reliability; deciding to retain, edit or discard items; revising the test etc.).

The workshop was conducted by renowned educationists including Professor Dr Iftikhar-un-Nisa Hassan, Karakorum International University, Gilgit, Professor Dr Iffat S. Dar, Expert Psychologist, Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) Islamabad, Professor Dr Mah Nazir Riaz, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Frontier Women University, Peshawar, and Professor Dr Rukhsana Kausar, Chairperson, Department of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab.

Professor Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Adviser Human Resource Development, HEC, was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony. He lauded the efforts of Social Sciences Project team and NTS to initiate innovative and useful academic programme targeting university faculty members. “Since its inception, HEC has undertaken a number of programmes for the benefit of university faculty members,” he said.

The adviser thanked the resource persons for sharing their valuable knowledge and expertise with the participants. He reiterated HEC’s commitment towards supporting various programmes aimed at promoting quality teaching and research in Pakistan. Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr Haroon Rashid, Director NTS highlighted the background, objectives and importance of the workshop. He was of the view that the activity would help efforts to improve capacity of universities’ faculty in the area of test item construction.

Later, the chief guest distributed certificates and souvenirs among the resource persons and participants of the workshop.The news.