WORKSHOP TITLE: Beyond the Basics: Writing Quality Multiple Choice Items for Student Success
DURATION: 5 hours
FACILITATOR: Dr. Ryan Wilkinson
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This interactive workshop is designed to strengthen teachers’ skills in developing high-quality multiple-choice items that accurately measure student learning. Poorly constructed test items often yield misleading outcomes, making it challenging to assess what students truly know and can do accurately. To address this, the session will provide participants with clear guidelines for writing effective multiple-choice questions that go beyond simple recall. Through hands-on activities, examples, and peer collaboration, teachers will learn practical strategies to help them write items that assess student higher-order skills.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Identify common flaws in poorly written multiple-choice items that compromise validity and reliability.
- Explain the role of Bloom’s Taxonomy in designing assessments that measure different levels of cognitive skills.
- Differentiate between recall-based questions and those targeting application, analysis, and evaluation.
- Apply item-writing guidelines to create multiple-choice questions that align with higher-order thinking skills.
- Evaluate sample multiple-choice items for clarity, fairness, and alignment with learning objectives.
- Design a set of multiple-choice items that can serve as accurate indicators of student knowledge and skills.
TARGET POPULATION:
The primary target audience for this workshop is in-service teachers across primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels who are responsible for designing and administering assessments in their subject areas.
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
Participants are required to bring a laptop or any other type of electronic device. The workshop facilitator will provide all other materials.