Item set normalisation

Normalisation describes the process of adjusting values to be measured on a common scale. In risr/ assess this principle can be applied to item sets where different items might have different maximum scores and would therefore be weighted differently in the context of the exam. By running the normalisation function you can scale those items so they receive a common denominator (i.e. maximum score) and are therefore weighted equally.

Running the normalisation function on an item set

A common example of normalisation is converting values to a percentage, whereby values are scaled to be represented /100 (the common denominator).

To apply this process to an item set:

• Step 1 of 4

  Navigate to Item sets and choose an item set. The example below contains six OSCE stations each of varying maximum scores adding up to an item set total of 117.00. Click Normalize to begin.

  

• Step 2 of 4

  The pop-up window will ask you to input the value to which to normalise the scores (i.e. the common denominator, and new maximum score for the item). In our example, we will use 100 as the common value.

   

  Click Confirm.

• Step 3 of 4

  Note how now the maximum score for each item is 100.00. At the top of the screen, the system also shows you the original total score for the item set (117.00) as well as the normalised version, now 600.00.

  

• Step 4 of 4

  If you need to reverse the normalisation for any reason you can once again click Normalization, then select the Do not normalize, use items default scores checkbox and Confirm.

   

Exam normalisation

When the item set is used in an exam the maximum score will reflect the changes made above. The image below is from the set standard page. With an Angoff score of 70%, note the cut score of 420.00 (600 x 0.7 = 420).

This can be adjusted using a site configuration option to scale the exam score to be out of 100. With this setting applied, notice how the values change across the board with all statistics scaled to a maximum score of 100. The cut score is now 70.00 (100 x 0.7 = 70).

Exam normalisation is a site-wide setting. It cannot be applied per exam. If the setting is switched on then all exams in the site will be scaled to 100. If you would like to switch this setting on please contact us via the service desk to discuss.