#173
Online Group Embedded Figures
Wook-Sung Yoo, Chi-Yeon Park
Abstract- Online Group Embedded Figures Test (OGEFT) is
a new web based testing tool to administer the Group Embedded
Figures Test (GEFT) over long distances. GEFT is a perceptual
test originally developed to test a subject's cognitive ability to
locate a simple shape embedded within a complex figure. Further
research shows that GEFT can also be used as an assessment tool
for other purpose such as exploring analytical ability, social
behavior, and problem solving style. We use GEFT as a research
tool to examine the correlation between individual's cognitive
perceptual ability and learning ability. In order to administer the
paper-based GEFT, all participants would have to report to a
central testing site. In addition, grading and data entry by
instructors and test proctors is currently done manually. To
overcome these obstacles of the paper-based GEFT, Online
Group Embedded Figures Test (OGEFT) is developed using web
technology at Gannon University. The OGEFT extends the
abilities of GEFT without losing its original purpose and allows
the administration and delivery of GEFT to a widespread
geographic population.
Index Terms Group Embedded Figures Test, online
testing tool, web technology, Java Applet
I. INTRODUCTION
G roup Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) [1], [2] is a twenty-
Jfive item assessment test contained in a thirty-two page
booklet to evaluate Field Dependency/Independency
(FD/I), which is an individual's cognitive perceptual ability to
locate a simple shape embedded within a complex figure [3],
[4]. A person's FD/I is also correlated with certain learning
abilities. We use GEFT as a tool to identify students' learning
styles [5]. Although online courses have substantially become
popular these days, not everybody is successful in online
study. The success rate is closely related to the students'
learning style, and we believe that the test result of GEFT
could provide valuable information to students if online
course would be as beneficial as taking the course at a local
university. While the application of the GEFT may open up
new frontiers in education, there are many obstacles to
overcome. Currently, the targeted population is students and
professors in colleges and universities. Many colleges are
offering online courses to students physically located over the
entire country or even the world. In order to administer the
paper-based GEFT, all participants would have to report to a
Manuscript submitted April 10, 2006.
Wook-Sung Yoo is with Gannon University, Erie, PA 16541 USA (phone:
814-871-7692; fax: 814-871-7616; e-mail: yood gannon.edu). He is currently
at the computer and information science department at Gannon University.
Chiyeon Park is with Kwandong University, a division of computer science
and engineering, South Korea (e-mail: cypark4kwandong.ac.kr).
1-4244-0406-1/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE.
I
Test
central testing site. In addition, all grading and data entry by
instructors and test proctors is currently done manually. This
makes copying information into statistical analysis programs
on a computer tedious and error prone.
To overcome these obstacles and improve the scope and
usability of the paper-based GEFT, several attempts to create
a digital version of GEFT were made. As early as 1984 it was
suggested that a computerized version of the GEFT would
make much more sense than a one-time used 32-page booklet.
Burroway [6] went so far as to test a computerized version of
the GEFT (and several other tests using graphic figures) and
found it equivalent to the paper and pencil version. In 1987,
Melancon and Thompson [7] attempted to get around the
difficulties of developing a graphic interface and the
difficulties of machine scoring a graphic image by creating a
multiple choice FD/I test. Neither of these tests remains
available.
In 2005, Gannon University developed an online version of
the Group Embedded Figures Test using web
technology. The Online Group Embedded Figures Test
(OGEFT) extends the abilities of the GEFT without losing its
original purpose. OGEFT is a database driven web-based
testing, grading, and reporting tool that allows the
administration and delivery of the GEFT to a widespread
geographic population.
11. ONLINE GEFT
OGEFT is partitioned into three major components: Online
Test, Database, and Test Management. Figure 1 shows an
overview of the system components.
Fig. 1 System Overview of OGEFT
Each component is described in the following subsections in
detail.
A. Online Test
The Online Test component is the key to the portability and
usability of the OGEFT. The Online Test component consists
of a set of dynamic web pages. It includes a password
#173
protected login page, test instructions page with sample tests,
and an actual test page.
1) Login Page
The login page is a password protected page to serve several
security purposes. It blocks the access of unauthorized users
and also blocks the multiple accesses of authorized users who
have already completed the test. The user identification
number entered at the login page serves to identify the student
taking the test and being graded. At successful login, users
may continue on to the test instructions.
2) Instruction Page
The instructions page describes how to take the test before
taking the actual test. It demonstrates the correct way to
answer test questions with several screen shots and also
provides a chance for examinees to practice how to use mouse
to draw an answer for a sample question (see figure 2). This
practice test will identify any technical problem related to the
examinees' browser before the actual test.
Fig. 2. Sample instructions page
3) Actual Testing Page
The actual testing page provides a series of pages for
examinees to take the test. There are three timed sections in
the test and each section consists of multiple questions.
Examinees are allowed to change their answers as many times
as they want within the given time limit in each section. Once
the time limit is reached, however, the examinees can no
longer change their answers, and they are automatically
moved to the next section or forced to end the test if they were
in the last section.
The primary method to navigate between the test questions is
a set of buttons (previous and next) below the question
allowing the examinees to navigate to either the previous or
next question. OGEFT also provides a table of question
numbers on the left hand side of the question for the
2
examinees to jump to any question in the section directly (see
Fig. 3).
Tfine! LEFT 244
SECTION I
N-t S.IibX
23[~~~~~~~~'n3'ml medio Drav brn
i11 lvi=[ll -
Fig. 3. Sample Test page with test question.
All questions that have been answered display a green check
mark next to their number allowing examinees to quickly
select questions that have not been answered for each section.
The amount of time left in a section is clearly displayed
allowing examinees to manage the amount of time spent on
individual test questions. If the examinees complete a section
before time is up, they may advance to the next section by
either clicking the next button from the last question in the
section or by clicking the next section button underneath the
question numbers. By removing the back/forward button and
disabling the right mouse click button, there is no way for
examinees to return to previous sections of the test or answer
questions after the time limit is up.
Once a student answers the question by drawing a simple
picture over the original complex picture with a sequence of
mouse clicks, a set of x and y coordinate values of simple
pictures clicked is transmitted over the Internet and is saved in
a database on the server. While drawing an answer,
examinees may use buttons to delete either their entire
response or the last line of their response.
The test was designed to simulate the paper-based test as
closely as possible using Java applets. For an example, as
examinees flip papers to see test questions and draw choices
of simple shapes, OGEFT provides a button to toggle between
test questions (see Fig. 3) and simple shapes (see Fig. 4).
Without this toggling feature, the examinees using OGEFT
would have had the time-saving advantage over those who are
using the paper-version GEFT, which will eventually result in
inaccurate measurement of the examinee's actual ability.
Other conditions such as the time limit for testing and the
ability to view and answer test questions are simulated close
to the paper version of the test (see Fig. 3 and 4).
#173 3

2) Grading
|Ti-, LEFT 10:21 The grading section is a convenient way for the administrator
to view an examinee' s answers and give a grade on
SFC:TION I
31 them. Due to the nature of the test and the complexity of the
E-13- grading component, OGEFT doesn't provide an automatic
[E
a 3 grading feature, but the administrator is required to view each
|2-13 test question and answer and grade it as pass or fail. A test
result is the sum of the correct questions out of the total
BINext Sdcib,n
number of questions, and it is saved into the database for
reporting.

Fig. 4. Sample Test page with simple shapes.

B. Database
The database is the reservoir of test related data. OGEFT uses
MySQL for its database system. It is made of three tables to
save user information, users' answer for questions on the test
and test scores.
C. Test Management
The Test Management section provides a convenient way for
an administrator to review and grade the student's test. It also
provides a way to manage user account and to create reports.

1) User Management
User Management allows the administrator to manage
by adding, removing and resetting a user account.
users
Fig. 6. Grading
3) Reporting
The reporting section provides the administrator to compile
data of all graded tests from the database and generate a report
in table format. It also provides a feature to export the data as
a spreadsheet for further data analysis.

Delete StudentAccount

Fig. 5. User Management

When an account is created, the account number is created by Fig. 7 Reporting
the administrator and the system verifies its uniqueness which
allows administrators to avoid the duplicated account. The III. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ENHANCEMENT
removal and account reset feature allows the complete
Online GEFT was successfully implemented at Gannon
destruction of an account or the archiving of an account.
University, and it has been used in actual tests at Gannon
#173 4

since 2005. The OGEFT was designed to be taken by groups [5] D.L. Rule, P.C. Grippin, Comparison of Learning Style Instruments
that are too widespread to meet at a central location. Test Frequently Used with Adult Learners.
[6] R.L. Burroway, Measurement Potentials of Microcomputers for
participants have the benefit of conveniently taking GEFT Cognitive Style Research and Individualized Instruction. Proc. Annual
without going to central test location. The real benefit of Meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and
OGEFT is from the test administrator side. OGEFT eliminates Technology, Dallas, TX, 1984.
the need of proctors, and it dramatically simplifies and [7] J. Melancon, B. Thompson, Measurement Characteristics of a Test of
Field-Independence: Literature Review and Development of the Finding
decreases the paperwork and data entry required. Embedded Figures Test, Proc. Annual Meeting of the Mid-South
Educational Research Association, Mobile, AL, 1987.
The OGEFT also has several limitations which are more
related to the computer skills of the test participant. Unlike
the paper-based GEFT, there is no proctor in OGEFT to make
sure that a test participant reads instructions and understands
how to take an online test. If participants do not follow the
directions properly, their test scores may not reflect their real
ability. The quality of input devices such as a mouse, and the
computer skill level of test participants using their particular
input device could also affect the score of the test, since it may
take longer time for a less competent test participant to
accurately draw the shape. The paper based GEFT is also
liable to this problem but on a lesser scale since the majority
of people have used a pencil to draw at some point in their
lives. Another limitation is the unknown version and local
settings of the examinee's browser. While the OGEFT will
run on a variety of browsers with a variety of local settings,
Internet Explorer 6 with a screen resolution of 1024x768 has
given the most stable and consistent performance.
We conducted a brief survey of the participants pertaining to
the ease of use of the online system, problems encountered
taking the test, and possible improvements for the OGEFT.
There was a large difference in response based on students'
levels of technological awareness. The difficulty in drawing
with a mouse is one of the issues of users who do not use
computers often. More survey data will be gathered as more
tests are conducted, and we can then analyze the data for
further improvement of the system.
We are planning to further refine OGEFT to be used on an
individual basis to tailor a student's or specific class' need.
This would be especially beneficial to freshmen and transfer
students who will experience a new teaching style.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to students who used the OGEFT tool and
responded to our survey.
REFERENCES
[1] M.R. O'Leary, et. al, "The Group Embedded Figures Test: A Measure of
Cognitive Style or Cognitive Impairment," Journal of Personality
Assessment 44(5), Oct 1980, 532-370.
[2] E.J. Lusk, H. Wright, Note on Learning the Group Embedded Figures
Test, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 53(2), Oct. 1981, 370.
[3] C. A. Chinien, F. Boutin, Cognitive Style FD/I: An Important Learner
Characteristic for Educational Technologists, Journal of Educational
Technology Systems, 21(4), 1992-93, 303-1 1.
[4] J. Riddle, Distance Education and Learners' Individual Differences: An
Examination of Different Instructional Procedures Designed To
Accommodate the Learning Characteristics of Field-Dependent and
Field-Independent Learners, Proceedings of the Convention of the
Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 1992.
This document was created with Win2PDF available at http://www.win2pdf.com.
The unregistered version of Win2PDF is for evaluation or non-commercial use only.
This page will not be added after purchasing Win2PDF.