Writing Better Multiple-Choice Questions (Magna Online Seminar)

Date: November 4, 2014
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Location: GEB A204
Click here to register: http://bit.ly/WBMCQ-11-04-14 

Overview:

Join us for Writing Better Multiple-Choice Questions, a new Magna Online Seminar developed and presented by Jim Sibley, director of the Centre for Instructional Support at the Faculty of Applied Science at University of British Columbia. The presenter will guide you through the common question-writing pitfalls and instruct you in item analysis so you can examine the performance of your questions and determine how to refine them.

More specifically, you will learn how to:

•    Write better, more effective multiple-choice questions
•    Identify, analyze, and avoid common multiple-choice question pitfalls
•    Use Bloom’s taxonomy to more accurately target the cognitive level of multiple-choice questions
•    Apply item analysis to measure the effectiveness of multiple-choice questions

Read Jim Sibley’s article in Faculty Focus – 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Multiple-Choice Questions

Note: We are obtaining a recording of this session and will have it to share approximately 2-3 weeks after the live session. Let Kristy know if you would be interested in viewing it.

Providing Effective Feedback

In last week’s blog post (Assessing Your Assessment Strategy), we discussed rubrics and how they can be utilized as part of your assessment strategy. Rubrics are certainly an important and valuable assessment tool. However, assessment can be delivered in other formats as well.

Providing verbal feedback can also play an important role in your overall assessment strategy.  Feedback can be delivered via a two-way conversation between the learner and instructor particularly in clinical settings. For feedback to be beneficial to the learner, it must be specific and focused on the behavior or performance observed. These conversations, if properly facilitated, can be very effective methods for assessing performance particularly in an active learning environment such as a clinical setting. Several resources are available to assist instructors in improving their skills related to providing feedback such as:

How do you provide feedback to your students? What tips or suggestions can you share?

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Imaged obtained from: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8008/6996700130_c299d9d626_z.jpg

Assessing Your Assessment Strategy

We announced back in January  that 2014 would be The Year of Active Learning at UTHSC. In our weekly posts since the beginning of the year, we have shared several resources and ideas for incorporating active learning into the classes you teach whether it be face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online. As educators, we understand that any activity or project utilized within a course must tie into the overall course objectives and to student learning outcomes. But how can we ensure (and provide evidence) that each assignment, activity, or project leads to appropriate student learning outcomes and is properly aligned to the course objectives? Many instructors utilize rubrics as part of their assessment strategy.

Rubrics are valuable tools that assist instructors in not only assessing student learning outcomes but can also help in assessing the quality of a course as a whole. There are many resources available to help in designing rubrics including templates based on the item being assessed such as rubrics for assessing oral presentations, online discussion forums, or research projects. To see an example of assessment resources that can be located online, check out The University of Wisconsin – Stout’s Rubrics for Assessment page at http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.cfm.

Are you interested in learning more about incorporating rubrics as part of your assessment strategy? Join us July 9th (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM) in GEB A304 for a webinar led by Dr. Teresa Flateby, Director of Academic Assessment at Georgia Southern University. Dr. Flateby’s session will include a wealth of information and resources related to assessment and rubrics including templates you can utilize to design rubrics for your course.To read an overview of this session and learn more about Dr. Flateby go to http://www.higheredhero.com/3GD/0/2/pF7YE7c/pA7HJ8HZi/p0e/.

Interested in joining us and viewing this webinar? Please register at: http://tinyurl.com/creatingrubrics

 

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Image obtained from http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/rubric_tutorial/default.htm

Using Cloud-based Applications to Support Learning Objectives: BLOOMing with Technology

The Sloan Consortium hosted this webinar that provided an overview of the digital makeover that Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives for learning has undergone. The Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Pyramid makes thinking about technology tools in this context a breeze. This session explored how they can be used at various levels on the digital taxonomy to encourage higher level thinking and problem solving. This session also provided faculty with some creative and innovative ideas for integrating Web 2.0 tools at each level.

 

Introduction to Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is located here.

Interactive Bloom’s Revised Digital Taxonomy – one version located here.

APPLYING

http://bubbl.us – Anatomy & Physiology students collaborate in a course using this free resource. Students are assigned specific areas – and areas are left blank – which require students to insert specific information (such as the anatomical part and the physiology of it).

http://www.twitter.com – Using Twitter as a public service announcement. Students must learn how to use Twitter and compose a PSA in 140 characters or less. Screenings (cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, prostate, etc…) are assigned to students. They then had to use Twitter to indicate why it was important to do a screening.

http://www.letterpop.com – great way for students to compose a newsletter and demonstrate they understand the information

Voki or VoiceBoards (integrated in some versions of Blackboard) or AudioBoo –  – use this for medical terminology. Students submit all their assignments using one of the three tools. In a survey, 96% said they wanted to have this used more, because they were able to hear the instructor pronounce the word.

Screencast-o-matic – can do presenting and show their work. Similar to Jing. Free to use, but for $15 can do closed captioning. Similar to using Snag-It or Camtasia. In anatomy/physiology have screenshots and students are required to go in and indicate where the origin of the problem was.

ANALYZING

Google Docs

Create-a-Graph or other infograph tool

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service located here.

Vizualize.me

 

Webinar facilitator: Dr. Julia VanderMolen is the Department Coordinator and Assistant Professor for Science and Health Online at Davenport University, Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a 2011 Teaching Excellence Award and 2012 Blackboard Exemplary Course Award winner. She has expertise in online learning and currently provides expertise to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) as a member of the research committee for best teacher education practice. She graduated with a Ph.D in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Career and Technical Education from Western Michigan University. She has a M.Ed in Educational Technology from Grand Valley State University and a MA in Health Science from the University of Alabama. She has presented at a number of conferences on the topic of educational technology and online learning.

 

Respondus Test Bank Network

UTHSC has a license for Respondus, Respondus LockDown Browser, StudyMate and StudyMate Class. Click on any of the links to learn more about these products.

We have several monthly sessions scheduled for you to learn more about these products in case you don’t know about them or how to use them.

  • Tuesday, Jan. 17th, 2012: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., GEB B107
  • Wednesday, Feb. 15th, 2012: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m, GEB B107
  • Tuesday, March 6th, 2012: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., GEB B107
  • Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., GEB B107
  • Wednesday, May 9th, 2012: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., GEB B107
  • Wednesday, June 13th, 2012: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., GEB B107

Great news! You have access to the Respondus Test Bank Network that includes 25 publishers, 4,000 official test banks, and over 8 million questions! The test banks are in a ready-to-use format for Respondus 4.0 and StudyMate users. There is no additional charge to use the test bank network – it’s free for instructors who adopt a participating textbook for their class.

If you go to the Respondus Test Bank Network, you can do a search for publisher test banks. You’re able to search on:

  • Textbook title
  • Author’s last name
  • Keywords (discipline, course name, etc.)
  • Publisher

Head over and try it. If you find something that you’d like to access, you’ll submit a request to access the file (to make sure you’re a faculty member and not a student!) and then be able to download the test file to use as you’d like in your courses. It integrates easily with Blackboard … so let us help you try it!