In this episode of the L&D Go Beyond podcast, Amit Garg interacts with Patti Shank, President Learning Peaks LLC. They talk about a very interesting topic – Writing Better Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) to Assess Learning.
Patti, an internationally acclaimed workplace learning expert, shares the very interesting background story of her new book on the same topic. She discusses how over the years, she has come across many people who ended up destroying a test with the multiple-choice questions they drafted. She tells us that she then spent the last four years reading and learning everything about MCQs, and has written a comprehensive book on it that could serve as a guide for learning designers.
The book covers many things about MCQs which people think they know but they don’t. According to Patti, people have certain misconceptions about multiple-choice questions, the biggest one being that a multiple-choice test can only assess recall. However, the main purpose of an MCQ test is to assess the learning objectives.
The podcast also touches on many other nuances of MCQs. Here are the key takeaways:
- Writing clear learning objectives
- Creating good and effective distractors
- Differentiators between formative versus summative assessments
- Scientifically setting passing scores for assessments
- Creating scenario-based questions/options
- Assessing for recall
Tune into the podcast for detailed insights.
Listen to the audio version: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1830336/9961661
Access all our podcasts here: https://www.upsidelearning.com/podcast-season1/
Connect with Patti
Email: patti@learningpeaks.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pattishank