Case Study: University of Houston streamlines Spanish placement, cuts costs, and improves oral assessment with Questionmark

Placement Exam for Heritage Learners of Spanish at the University of Houston

The University of Houston faced growing enrollment in its Spanish for Heritage Learners Program and needed to replace time-consuming paper-and-pencil placement exams with a practical, reliable computerized solution. Working with Questionmark, UH built branched, online placement-and-credit assessments to measure vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing and oral production, and to correctly place students across basic, intermediate and advanced levels while collecting statistical data and simplifying test administration.

Questionmark delivered an online, branched assessment platform comprising five pass/fail exams—including spoken-response items (audio prompts, picture descriptions and video-completion tasks)—administered 12 times per academic year. The switch to Questionmark cut staff time and costs, streamlined placements (including awarding course credit for high scorers), improved reporting and data analysis, earned positive student feedback, and set the department up to expand the question bank and promote broader campus use.

University of Houston

Anjana Singhal

Instructional Designer