I use many formats concurrently on the same test in order to touch on each student's strong and weak points. If there is a lab associated with the course, then a skill application section will be included as well as short answer, multiple choice, true/false etc.
What are the criteria you use for selecting testing formats?
Criteria used for selecting testing materials is an important consideration for instructors. For me, I always take into account what grade level I am teaching. I currently teach middle, school, high school, undergraduate courses, and graduate courses. Whatever format I select for testing takes into account the formal grade level I am teaching, and then of course the individual levels or needs of my students.
Another criteria I use is my course objectives and what it is I want my students to learn. I then make sure the test questions are set up accordingly. On a weekly basis, I tend to use simple objective tests to make sure students can recognize basic terms and concepts. It helps to give quick assessment and feedback, and allows students to earn some points as well. I simply give all points for completion as it is for improving and learning. Verbal feedback and exchanges, or writing feedback with my online classes, I also do each week.
In all of my classes, I strive for students to use higher order thinking skills. As such, I always require some type of essay test or project that requires students to discuss and apply the content, as well as analyze issues from multiple perspectives. I do this all the way from junior high to graduate students. The questions and expectations, however, are adjusted to the grade level and needs of my students.
Al Farina
Hi Elizabeth - As Career College instructors, we really must, as you state, prepare them for what they will encounter in their careers. If they will be testing for certifications then we must prepare them for those assessments. Best wishes and thanks for sharing! Susan
We are an industry-modeled school so I try to test the same way they will be tested for certifications as well as the skills they must learn for the field. I feel that preparing them in this fashion will test the content that was given to them as well as show them what the next step will be when they actually get a job in IT.
Subjective and Objective, as they do encompass/ utilize the creative and analytical abilities, respectively.
Since I teach online the majority of the time, the testing formats that I most often use are multiple choice, true-false, and essay. I feel that using these three formats combined gives me a well-rounded view of how well the students are understanding the information.
Hi Jane - Thanks for your post to the forum. You are using a nice variety of assessment options! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
For those aspects where I want to stress that there is only one correct answer, I like to use T/F tests. For those aspects that call for a judgement on the student's part, I like to use short answers tests. For anatomical identification, matching tests,well, match!
The diagnostic and baseline test gives me an idea on what type of test I need to format. After that my testing format depends on the my lecture, how the lecture was received, and questions from the students. Personally, I like completion format testing.
HI Deb - You have a very comprehensive assessment strategy - great work! Susan
Choice of testing formats is directly related to what material I am covering. If I want to assess students recognition of vocabulary, then multiple choice works well. I also like to use multiple choice questions that are based on a scenario (for example, based on computer and software specifications, will software run on the computer). This lets me see if students can apply the concepts.
For math, I like to use problems where students have to come up with their own answers and are not able to work back from multiple choice options.
Courses that teach specific software, I prefer to use skill assessment types of testing.
Hi Joel - Thanks for your post to the forum. You have a very comprehensive approach to assessment!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
It depends on what they're being tested on. If I'm giving them a test regarding a literary text, I use short-answer testing. With grammar, I like using multiple choice because the students have more options and are more at ease.
Being from a technical school, we use multiple choice questions and application testing.
Hi Susan,
Most of the quiz material that I use is based on either Multiple Choice or T/F in order to work through a wide variety of questions and get good coverage of the material in the quizzes.
With the mid-term and Final Exam, Multiple Choice and T/F is again used in order to make sure that I can get a broad coverage of the material, but there will also be "Essay" style problems that require the full work of a given evaluation to be shown as well as "Fill-In-The-Blank" style questions where solution options are not given in advance to eliminate pure guessing at solutions. These problems really give me the ability to verify the successful integration of the material and application of the methods for each student in the major summary tests. It is not necessary for me to require the students to show all of the work with every problem on the exam in order to assess competency with the methods. So, the combination of the "Essay" and "Short Answer" along with the Multiple Choice provides a good way to get a nice blend of Material Coverage, Exam Grading Time Requirement and Student Method Comprehension evaluation :).
Isabel, I agree that ethics classes, like the English classes I teach, lend themselves to essay tests. I like to see the rational processes of my students.
I prefer essays for my classes, Farida, but I do use an occasional multiple choice quiz. As a student, I preferred essays so I tend to favor them, but since I teach English, essays seem to work best.
Since I mostly teach English and literature at my schools, I prefer essay tests. I like to see that students have processed, assimilated, and logically analyzed material. I also use these to see how the students are doing grammatically, mechanically, etc. I give an occasional grammar quiz that includes short answer and multiple choice.
Depending on whether the book information covered is relevant to daily use in our industry, will then determine if multiple choice or matching is applicable. Some of the information taught in my classes is needed for a foundation. However, I believe that more important is whether my students know how to use their tools and resources to find the answers to questions that present themselves. Therefore, sometimes I will have open notebook tests to challenge them early in life to document things clearly and in an organized fashion.
Hi Holt - Wow - your assessment plan certainly covers all the bases! Thanks for your post to the forum. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
