Improving your online assessment strategy: recommendations for constructing well designed, multiplechoice and other automatically marked questions

The most ubiquitous form of online quiz is undoubtedly the multiplechoice, which is surprising due to their contentious reputation amongst students and staff. Students who have mastered surface learning techniques and test-taking strategies often prefer this question type. Students with a deeper understanding of the content can be confused by the design of the question. Staff question the content validity of the results. Given these concerns despite their increasing use in courses, I conducted a review of the assessment literature to determine what is considered best practice in multiple choice question (MCQ) design. Constructing better designed MCQs for online delivery is useful because the time efficiencies of using them in classes can be considerable for staff. There can be learning benefits for students in the provision of timely and informative feedback. Designing well-constructed multiple-choice questions is not a quick process nor is it particularly easy. However, using multiple-choice and other ‘selected response’ question types is a worthwhile practice when used as part of a holistic assessment strategy, whether the questions are used for formative feedback or as summative evidence. To improve their validity as evidence of learning, this presentation seeks to increase awareness of issues that should be taken into account when designing MCQs to reduce test-taking strategies and improve question clarity. The MCQ is but one of several “selected response” question types that enables automatic marking online, and you may choose to incorporate some of these other questions into your online assessments as these reduce the dependence of a student on simply recognising or recalling the answer. This presentation also proposes a simple practice to ensure questions are linked to course learning outcomes, improving the connection between curriculum and assessment