Category Archives: multiple-choice questions

Can multiple-choice questions be used to give useful feedback?

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Sally Jordan

I was asked the answer to this question recently, and I thought it was worth a blog post. My simple answer to the question in the title, I’m afraid to say, is “no”. Perhaps that’s a bit unfair, but I … Continue reading →

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Performance on interactive computer-marked questions – gender differences

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Sally Jordan

We have become aware of a significant difference in outcome for male and female students on our level 2 physics module; around 25% of the students on the module are women, and they are both less likely to complete the module … Continue reading →

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Six Geese a-Laying

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Sally Jordan

Day 6. Making multiple-choice better. Although I don’t, in general, much like multiple-choice questions, I have to admit that they can sometimes work very well. In conventional face-to-face settings, the use of electronic voting systems (‘clickers’) can bring lectures alive … Continue reading →

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Five Gold Rings

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Sally Jordan

Day 5. Go beyond multiple choice. I’ve been reading a lot recently about the pros and cons of multiple choice (selected response) and constructed response questions. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll realise that I am not … Continue reading →

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Think before you assess

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Sally Jordan

As well as the reading that has sparked my recent posts on Learning Outcomes and Revolution or Evolution?, I’ve been reading articles about multiple-choice questions and about assessing practical work. I’m fairly sure that I’ll be saying more about both of those topics … Continue reading →

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Distractors for multiple-choice questions

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Sally Jordan

I’ve just been asked a question (well, actually three questions) about the summative use of multiple-choice questions. I don’t know the answer. Can anyone help? If we want 3 correct answers, what’s the recommended number of distractors? If we want 4 … Continue reading →

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Multiple choice questions in Peerwise

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Sally Jordan

Yesterday morning I particated in a wonderful webinar on Peerwise (http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/), led by Paul Denny from the University of Auckland. The more I see of it, the more I am impressed by Peerwise – yesterday I attempted to write questions … Continue reading →

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More about guessing and blank/repeated responses

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Sally Jordan

Depressingly, this post reports a similar finding to the last one. For the  question shown (which is one of a series of linked questions on the Maths for Science  formative-only practice assessment), 62% of students are right at the first attempt … Continue reading →

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‘A nice demonstration of a problem with multiple-choice questions’

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Sally Jordan

That was my husband’s comment when we were analysing responses to the question shown on the left. Start by noting that although this is a drag and drop question it is indeed effectively a multiple-choice (or multiple-response) question – you can … Continue reading →

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Multiple choice vs short answer questions

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Sally Jordan

I’m indebted to Silvester Draaijer for leading me towards an interesting article: Funk, S.C. & Dickson, K.L (2011) Multiple-choice and short-answer exam performance in a college classroom. Teaching of Psychology, 38 (4), 273-277. The authors used exactly the same questions in  … Continue reading →

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