Hi Stephen - Thanks for your post to the forum. Your use of rubrics in practical assessments is ideal. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hi Amy - I so agree - especially in the field that you teach, being "hands on" is vital! Susan
Ultimately, it depends on what class I am teaching. If it is a "Medical Lab" class, I will incorporate at least 2-4 different formats. For example, if I teach my students the names of instruments and I am testing on those, I want them to be able to actually pick them up, feel them, use them, etc. A picture on the test or a word bank doesn't help them when the doctor says "Hand me the hemostats" and they give him/her a pair of forceps. Pictures, words, the real thing....all very different when we are performing. PS...not a big fan of T/F!
Because we are teaching culinary, we have the ability to use both written and practical assessment. The written assignments are a compilation of true/false, fill in, multiple choice, short answer and essay so we really try to incorporate various types of testing styles so that we can truly ascess the student's comprehension of the material. For practical exams we use a rubric to maintain a consistant method and balance of grading truly subjective items.
My testing format varies according to the syllabus I’m teaching and how to get the most out of the students. The test format that is more relevant to my teaching were, multiple choices, true and false, essay questions, matching and short answers.
Hi Judith - thanks for your post to the forum. Your assessment choices are excellent! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I teach courses that require students to learn concepts, vocabulary, procedures. These courses do not have a "hand on" component, except using a coding manual. My courses require students to develop "thinking" skills and research skills to find a correct answer. Consequently, the tests that I use are the variety of objective tests covered in this course: true/false, multiple choice, and matching. I use objective tests because, in this field of study, there is only 1 correct answer to a question. Also, I use objective tests during courses because students are required to take a certification exam at the end of their academic program, and this exam is an exclusively objective, standardized test. Course tests are a "practice" for the critical exam at the end.
My courses teach specific non-clinical skills in the healthcare environment. Students must learn concepts, vocabulary, procedures, and how to apply all of this to specific tasks. I use only objective tests for my classes -- but I use all the formats mentioned in this course: true/false, multiple choice, and matching. Objective testing is the best way for me to assess whether students have learned the material that they must know -- there is only 1 correct answer. I also use objective tests exclusively because the certification exam that students are required to take at the conclusion of their academic programs is an objective, standardized test. My course functions also as a "practice" for this critical exam at the end.
difficulty of subject matter; relevance of questions to the subject matter; variety; appealing to the different learning styles
I have primarily used MC and T/F, and will often have a few completion test questions. I have retained a copy of your information regarding each test type and will use this in the future. Thank you again!
the criterea I use in selecting the testing format is based on the course content. I t gives me a wide variety of area to test.
My course content contains a lot of factual information. I prefer multiple choice as it gives the students a chance of pulling the correct information with a little help out of their memory banks. I don't like true/false questions because it relies on knowing something exactly as it's stated in the book (facts) rather than knowing the principle understanding of that fact.
I do not have a specific criteria for selscting testing format except for it is based off of the material covered. Some material covered requires different testing format, but I use a variety of the following, multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill in the blank, short answrer, and essay. It just depends on what material is being covered at that time and what test format I feel is appropiate for the type of material the test will cover.
Must consider the nature of the subject matter, the students and what you are trying to accomplish (i.e., the objective of the test). So it has a number of factors to be considered that may even change as the course of study progresses requiring different types of tests.
Hi William - Thanks for your post to the forum. Your choice of assessment types followed by classroom feedback is great! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
My courses do not include a test to assess skill but rather simply understanding of the course content. So any tests are simple in design and might include a variety of styles, including multiple choice, completion, matching. Any missed questions would be followed by short class discussion to aid in understanding.
Hi Barry - Thanks for your post to the forum. since your program is so closely tied to the National Exam, your assessment choices are entirely appropriate! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Objectives tested in my exams are based on National Registry objectives for this Allied health field ( Clinical Lab) and the format in which the National Registry presents these question to students. There are three catagory of questioning: Recall (1),Interp (2) and problem solving (3). Since the format of the National Registry is that of a 4 options multiple choice examination, all questioning regardless of taxonomy must be placed into this format.
I use a variety of formats when it comes to testing. Most often I gage my determination of which testing method I will be using according to how well I perceive that the students has grasped and retained the information needed to be sucessful on the test.
Hi David - thanks for your post to the forum. Your choices of assessments are right on track!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
