Chapter 9 - Instructional Media: Chalkboards to Video - CGISS

• Avoid providing grammatical clues to the correct answer by
using “a,” “an,” etc., instead of specific modifiers.
• Assign much more credit for completion items than for T/F
or matching items.
Essay/Short-Answer Items
Advantages -- Short-answer items, those limited to fewer than five
full sentences, are interchangeable with completion items. Essay
items, on the other hand, allow expression of both breadth and
depth of learning, and encourage originality, creativity, and
divergent thinking. Written items offer students the opportunity to
use their own judgment, writing styles, and vocabularies. They are
less time-consuming to prepare than any other item type.
Disadvantages -- Unfortunately, tests consisting only of written
items permit only a limited sampling of content learning due to the
time required for students to respond. Essay items are not efficient
for assessing knowledge of basic facts, and they provide students
more opportunity for bluffing and rambling than do limited-choice
items. They favor students who possess good writing skills and for
their neatness, and they are pitfalls for students who tend to go off
on tangents or misunderstand the main point of the question. The
main disadvantage, however, is that essay items are difficult and
time-consuming to score and are potentially subject to biased and
unreliable scoring.
Suggestions for Constructing Essay/Short-Answer Items
• Use novel problems or material whenever possible, but only
if they relate to class learning.
• Make essay questions comprehensive rather than focused
on small units of content.
• Require students to demonstrate command of background
information by asking them to provide supporting evidence
for claims and assertions.
• Provide clear directions as to the expectations.
• Allow students an appropriate amount of time. It is helpful to
give students some guidelines on how much time to use on
each question, as well as the desired length and format of
the response, e.g., full sentences, phrases only, outline, and
so on.
• Inform students, in advance, about the proportional value of
each item in comparison to the total grade.
• Keep grading in mind while creating the questions. Jot down
notes of what you expect to see in student answers that
help identify mastery of the subject matter.
Section: Student Assessment 165 Chapter 12: Testing Issues