For example, when assessing the results of a multiple-choice test, the instructor can see what questions students most frequently circled as incorrect, and specifically which incorrect responses were most attractive to students. Technology can also help highlight what students have improved or not improved in their test performance over the course of the semester by tracking student grades, on easily-read graphs, which can serve as a dramatic illustration of student progress for the teacher. If student performance was particularly poor on a particular unit or cluster of concepts, the teacher can target these areas for more extensive review. Technology thus allows for a more in-depth means of obtaining valuable feedback from test results as well as greater speed of assessment. Technology allows instructors to use feedback to improve both lesson plans and assessments by providing information about how students approach tests as well as how they...

While many students claim that they are poor test takers because of nerves, some students do poorly on tests because they do not understand how to appropriately 'attack' a test and analyze it in a useful fashion. Students who consistently make the same types of errors on similar types of tests -- such as students with particular deficiencies in solving word problems, for example -- can be singled out for additional review. Standardized assessment should never be used alone, and instructors must think outside of the proverbial box when constructing assessment devices. But these examples illustrate that even conventional tests can yield additional insight, when new methods of analysis, facilitated by technology, are applied in an effective fashion.
References

Chapter 5: Assessment of student learning. (2011). Beyond Crossroads. Retrieved February 15,

2011 at http://beyondcrossroads.amatyc.org/doc/CH5.html