Developing Multiple Choice Tests That Assess Higher Order Thinking Skills

Description  Challenge The value of multiple-choice questions lies in their efficiency. Multiple-choice items are a relatively quick way to assess students’ understanding across a wide range of topics and instructors (or automated systems) can grade the items (and provide feedback) even faster. The challenge with multiple-choice items is that they historically target rote and application levels of learning. As such, their value has been criticized for failure to promote or assess higher-order thinking strategies. In this webinar, we will explore how to transform multiple-choice items to promote synthesis and evaluation of course information. Key TakeawayAfter attending this webinar, participants will be able to design and integrate multiple-choice items that assess higher order thinking skills.OverviewWith an increase in online and blended learning, it is important to examine student engagement and assessment strategies that can efficiently and effectively be incorporated into the virtual classroom. While multiple-choice assessment has been a mainstay of education for many years, creative integration of higher-order multiple-choice assessment offers the opportunity to target higher order learning objectives without burdening instructor workload. Multiple-choice items are widely used due to their versatility in assessing a range of learning objectives; well-constructed multiple-choice questions can target factual knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation. Also, the objective nature of multiple-choice items ensures reliable, efficient scoring and allows for rapid feedback. While there are many benefits to utilizing multiple-choice items, the effectiveness of multiple-choice assessments rests on the quality of the test items and the appropriateness of this type of evaluation in relation to the learning objectives. Participants will learn how to evaluate the value of a multiple-choice test for meeting specific learning objectives, design high-quality, meaningful multiple-choice items, and utilize the outcome of multiple-choice assessments to enhance the teaching-learning dynamic. We will also explore how automated multiple-choice assessments can be used to promote student learning through mastery assessments, maximize instructional time in the classroom and improve student preparation for class activities.Objectives Evaluate the appropriateness of multiple-choice tests in relation to learning objectives Design effective, meaningful multiple-choice items Enhance the teaching-learning dynamic using the outcome of multiple-choice assessments Maximize instructional time in the classroom through automated multiple-choice tests Integrate multiple-choice assessments to improve students’ preparation for class activities Utilize multiple-choice items to engage students during class while simultaneously providing individualized formative feedback Who Should Attend 2-year & 4-year institutions Academic Affairs/Instruction Faculty (full and part-time) Dean of Instruction & Department Chairs Online Learning Administrators Faculty who teach or plan to teach online/hybrid courses Online Learning Professionals Anyone interested in learning more about designing multiple choice tests & multiple choice assessments