Online assessment

Synonym: e-assessment

Definition of online assessment

Online assessment is a psychological test procedure carried out via the internet considering a consistent methodology to determine both the technical and the personal suitability of an applicant towards a job profile. For this purpose, tasks and exercises conducted in a traditional assessment in front of observers are simulated in a questionnaire on the internet.

Online assessments are applied in three fields:

• Determination of skills, e.g. verbal, diagrammatical, and mechanical skills
• Knowledge tests, e.g. questions on technical problems
• Personality tests, e.g. determine characteristics, preferences, motives, and motivations

Principles of online assessments

Three construction principles can be distinguished for online assessments:

• Normative test procedures determine how the participants perform compared to a reference group. Typing and the formation of attribute characteristics for groups of people are derived thereof, allowing interindividual comparison of measurement values.
• Ipsative test procedures determine what behavior and skills the participants have successfully used in the past. It is furthermore assumed that this behavior is preferably used and therefore becomes an individual behavior pattern. These procedures allow an intraindividual comparison of characteristics that can again be compared to the job profile.
• Criteria-oriented test procedures determine whether and to what extent specific behavior patterns are pronounced. No interindividual comparison is made and neither is examined whether a determined behavior has intraindividually contributed to success.

Significance of online assessments

By applying online assessments, potential employees are preselected due to specific and objective decision-making bases with the objective of supporting the efficiency and reducing the risk of inappropriate placement of employees in a company. The acceptance of such technical means in Germany is well below the international average of more than 50 %. However, the acceptance rate among applicants and HR managers has increased in the last years.