oa Toetsoptimalisatie onder moeilijke omstandigheden

Is it possible to shorten an 80-item diagnostic writing ability test without a substantial loss in reliability and validity, and without a substantial reduction in the quality of the advices based on the scores of this test? The starting point of this psychometric-analytical study is a practical case: a formative writing ability test which has to be completed by accountants before they are allowed to follow an e-learning training programme for improving the quality of writing management letters. Based on the results of this diagnostic test, the accountants get specific advices which are tuned to their specific writing abilities and shortcomings: in the e-learning they have to pay special attention to certain problems in the writing of management letters, while others problems may be skipped. The time to complete this diagnostic test (on average 3 hours) is a main problem in view of the limited time of the participants and the duration of the whole e-learning training programme (8 hours).