How do print-based assessments differ from digital assessments in terms of validity and reliability?

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Delivery method shapes how we gather evidence about validity and reliability. Validity is about whether the assessment truly measures what we intend to measure and supports the claims we make about a learner’s abilities. Reliability is about consistency of results across items, administrations, and scorers. Digital formats offer rich analytics—item statistics, response patterns, and time-on-task data—that can strengthen validity evidence by revealing how students interact with items and whether those interactions align with the intended construct. But they can introduce biases linked to accessibility or device familiarity: differences in screen readers, keyboarding, navigation, or device performance can affect scores for reasons unrelated to content knowledge, which can threaten fairness and validity.

Print formats tend to be more stable across devices and environments, reducing those device-related effects and helping reliability to hold across settings. Yet they typically provide fewer analytics to support deeper validity judgments, and scoring can become inconsistent if rubrics aren’t calibrated or if multiple raters aren’t aligned. Regardless of format, ensure alignment with the learning objectives and use consistent scoring procedures to maintain reliability.