Technology Gateway Examination - Computer competency test at the Pratt-SILS

Effective fall 1997, the faculty of the Pratt Institute's Graduate School o f Information and Library Science (Pratt-SILS) devised a test instrument ca lled Technology Gateway Examination (TGE). This examination was adopted to: 1) promote the computer competency level of the school's beginning graduat e students, and 2) serve as a prerequisite for the course LIS604 (Technolog y for Information Storage and Retrieval). The contents of the examination i nclude: 1) microcomputer operating systems, 2) word processing, and 3) spre adsheet applications. A series of free tutorial and test sessions for the T GE are offered monthly to students. This article reviews the background and the process of the TGE tutorial-test sessions. It also reports the results of the assessment of the procedures and the formats of the TGE, as well as the impact of the tutorial service and the examination on students' learni ng of computer technology.