Learning and Teaching Innovation Centre

Using Multiple Choice Questions

My Course > LEARNING AND TEACHING INNOVATION CENTRE > Guidance, Resources and Toolkits > Assessment and Feedback > Using Multiple Choice Questions

These resources are to help you write appropriate Multiple Choice Questions  (MCQs). The UH Assessment -for- Learning Principles set out below are a useful starting point when developing assessments. They allow you to frame your assessment in terms of good practice undergraduate education as articulated by Chickering and Gamson (1987).

The UH Assessment -for- Learning Principles

These principles suggest that good practice in Assessment -for- Learning:

  •  Engages students with the assessment criteria
  •  Supports personalised learning
  •  Ensures feedback leads to improvement
  •  Focuses on student development
  •  Stimulates dialogue
  •  Considers student and staff effort
 
The SEEC Level Descriptors for levels 3-8 are grouped under five headings:
 
  • Setting
  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Cognitive skills
  • Performance and practice
  • Personal and enabling skills
 
MCQs are suitable for assessing "knowledge and understanding" and "cognitive skills" - see this blog on the subject 'Deeper thinking and creative classroom use of MCQs' by Dr David Smith, National Teaching Fellow.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Writing Multiple Choice Questions (1392.9kb)
The attached handouts are used to support the 'Writing Multiple Choice Questions' workshop.

SEEC Level Descriptors (5904.6kb)
When writing MCQs you will need to consider the "levelness" of the question.



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