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Georgetown University. Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship and Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs Writing Multiple Choice Questions. Aviad Haramati, PhD Peggy A. Weissinger, EdD Georgetown University School of Medicine. Congruence!. Objectives. Activities. Assessment.
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Georgetown University Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship and Office of Faculty and Academic AffairsWriting Multiple Choice Questions Aviad Haramati, PhD Peggy A. Weissinger, EdD Georgetown University School of Medicine CNDLS & OFAA Georgetown University
Congruence! Objectives Activities Assessment Adapted from Felder & Brent ( 1991)
What am I testing? Core Principles: • Decide exactly what you want to test. • Eliminate as many ambiguities as possible. • Create distractors based firmly on what you want to test. • After it is over, use it as a learning opportunity! • Give feedbackfor your distracters which explains why they’re wrong. • Give feedback for the correct answer explaining why it’s right. Adapted from http://hotpot.uvia.ca/howto/mcquestion.htm TLISI - Georgetown University
Technical Flaws Issues Related to Irrelevant Difficulty • Options long, complicated, or double • Numeric data not stated consistently • Terms in options are vague • Language in options not parallel • Options in non-logical order • Stems are tricky or unnecessarily complicated Reference: Case & Swanson (NBME) Constructing Written Test Questions TLISI - Georgetown University
Item Shape Appropriately Shaped Item Long Stem a. b. c. d. e. Poorly Shaped Item Short Stem a. b. c. d. TLISI - Georgetown University e.
When Writing Options... …make sure that they are: • Homogenous in content • Incorrect or inferior to the correct answer • Plausible and attractive to the uninformed • Similar to the correct answer in construction • Grammatically consistent and logically compatible with the stem Reference: Case & Swanson (NBME) Constructing Written Test Questions TLISI - Georgetown University
General Guidelines • Bulk of question in the stem. • Try “cover-the-options” test. • Avoid superfluous information. • Avoid “tricky” and overly complex items. • Write grammatically consistent options. • Avoid absolutes! (e.g. always, never, all) And most important: Focus on important concepts. Don’t waste time testing trivial facts. Reference: Case & Swanson (NBME) Constructing Written Test Questions TLISI - Georgetown University
Pulling it together! Summary: • Decide what you want to test. • Well-written objectives make the job easier. • Use guidelines for writing quality MCQ. • Local resources here to help!
Contact information Peg Weissinger paw33@georgetown.edu 202-687-4556 Aviad Haramati haramati@georgetown.edu 202-687-1021 CNDLS & OFAA Georgetown University