Audience Level:
All
Institutional Level:
N/A
Abstract:
The Multiple Choice Item Type is a standard fixture on both paper and computerized tests, but has it outlived its usefulness as many claim? This session provides one “peek” into a possible future of this foundational format. Attendees will gain a greater appreciation of ways the multiple choice question can be re-invented, and experience some of these exciting possibilities first hand.
Extended Abstract:
If you were asked to estimate the percentage of items in use today in high stakes testing programs that are of the traditional multiple choice variety, any guess higher than 95% would likely a good one. To those programs there is no doubt as to the value of such questions to the programs themselves, to test takers and to society in general. But has this format, born around 1914, and a standard fixture on both paper and computerized tests since then, outlived its usefulness as many claim? Should it be retired? Since the use of computers to create tests, the multiple choice question has added some important variations. Do these variations represent the future of the item type, or are there more substantive changes to come? Does the use of computers to administer tests signal that the multiple choice testing era is coming to a close? Or does that technology push the format to make a quantum leap in value for all? This session provides one “peek” into a possible future of this foundational format. Attendees will gain a greater appreciation of ways the multiple choice question can be re-invented, and experience some of these exciting possibilities first hand.
Conference Track:
Innovations, Tools, and Technologies
Session Type:
Education Session
Intended Audience:
All Attendees