Today, Abai University hosted a research and methodological seminar entitled “Educational Measurement in Higher Education: Methodological Foundations for Test Item Development and Review.” The seminar was aimed at enhancing the quality of higher education, ensuring objective assessment of students’ learning outcomes, and improving modern testing systems. The event was attended by the University’s teaching and academic staff, faculty deans, and specialists working in the areas of educational quality assessment and testing.

    One of the key issues in developing test items is ensuring their alignment with learning objectives. Test items should be designed with consideration of different levels of students’ cognitive skills, including remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, and evaluating. Another important issue in test item development is insufficient attention to the review stage. Before ready-made test items are used, their content, level of difficulty, and clarity should be reviewed by experts. In addition, a high-quality test item should be closely aligned with the content of the educational program, while the expected learning outcome should be clearly considered during its development.

    The seminar is of particular importance to the higher education system, as testing makes it possible to assess students’ learning outcomes objectively, reliably, and validly. Testing also enables instructors to determine students’ level of knowledge and identify and address shortcomings in the educational process in a timely manner.

    In line with modern requirements, test items should assess not only students’ knowledge of theoretical material, but also their ability to think, analyze, compare, solve problems, and apply knowledge in practice. Therefore, modern tests should be aligned with educational programs, clearly formulated, and adapted to the digital learning environment.

    The research and methodological seminar was opened by Yerkin Zhumankulova, Director of the Department of Academic Affairs. The main presentation was delivered by Guldana Begimbetova, Head of the Testing Center. She spoke about the main approaches used to assess the quality of higher education.

    As part of the seminar, Oscar Ndayizeye, a researcher at the Institute of Applied Pedagogy of the University of Burundi, delivered an online presentation entitled “Teaching Objectives and Learning Activities.” The presentation focused on the interrelationship between learning objectives, teaching methods, and assessment tools, as well as the importance of consistency and coherence in the educational process. In addition, Zhanna Oryntayeva, Head of the Research and Methodological Laboratory; Dmitry Bortsov, Head of the Testing Support and Analysis Department; and specialists in this field — Galiya Rustemova, Aikerim Akymbayeva, Ernur Yeshenov, Aitolkyn Zhurtibai, Magzhan Toleutayev, and Aisanem Nurgambetova — provided relevant information on test item development.

    he research and methodological seminar provided comprehensive information on the key areas of educational measurement in higher education, mechanisms for assessing educational quality, principles of test item development, analysis of testing results, and the review of test items.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                «Abai University» Media Center