Not so fast WISC-V IQ’s on iPads ;)
A not-so-paperless IQ's on iPad administration after all
So, I must be honest my initial misgivings of administering IQ’s on iPads gave way to liking it for the convenience and the fact that I wasn’t required to dump thousands of dollars up front on a bunch of Wechsler testing kits that would be worthless down the road. As new abilities like Coding were added I was actually a bit skeptical again– but apparently in the wrong way. I thought the obviously different way the subtest was administered was perhaps harder and perhaps the scores would be lower. Apparently I was wrong because the scores, it turns out, are probably higher. Pearson has been sending cautions about this for a while now and saying don’t use the digital administration for Coding- go back to paper, but today I just received an email that they are just nuking it right out of the platform:
Dear WISC–V Q-interactive customers,
We previously sent a communication regarding the use of the WISC®–V Coding subtest in digital format on Q-interactive®. In that email we identified a performance issue with this subtest and provided guidance on suspending the use of digital Coding until we decided on next steps. Today we are writing to let you know that, after careful consideration and consultation with our researchers and customers, we are removing the digital Coding and Symbol Search subtests from Q-interactive. This removal will become effective with the next content update release on July 14, 2020.
Why are these two tests no longer available for digital administration?
Despite our attempts to adjust the software to correct for the performance issue, our analyses have continued to show slightly inflated digital Coding subtest scores.
The Symbol Search subtest is not showing inflated scores at this time. But, due to the fact that Symbol Search is also a speeded test with item presentation rate controlled by the system, we believe that there is a potential for this to become an issue in future iPad hardware and operating system releases. Thus, we are taking the proactive step to remove both Coding and Symbol Search from Q-interactive digital administration. We plan to replace these subtests in a future edition of the WISC with subtests not susceptible to issues arising from device performance.
Coding and Symbol Search are the only two components that are timed performance tests for which the operating system regulates item presentation rate. No other Q-interactive subtests are affected by this issue.
Some workflow adjustments will be needed, but we are aiming to make them as straightforward as possible.
The new content update will remove the digital administration options for these two Processing Speed subtests. Any new WISC–V Coding and Symbol Search subtests selected within Q-interactive will have the paper administration option automatically selected. Any digital Coding and Symbol Search subtests previously administered will continue to display the results of the digitally administered versions.
I hope things are going well,