How Could Everyone Get That Wrong?

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, multiple choice quizzes have their place and you may find yourself using them. The nice thing about them is that they grade automatically. Even nicer are the statistics about them that are available in Canvas. When most students get the same question wrong, it could be because

• The correct answer was incorrectly indicated in Canvas.
• The concept was not covered during the period covered by the quiz.
• The question was genuinely confusing to most students.

How do you know how many students got it right or wrong?

The first step is to to access quiz statistics.

Start your investigation

• View the question breakdown. Was the correct answer option was correctly identified? If it wasn’t, you can regrade the quiz.
• Look at the readings and assignments. Was the concept was covered? Are you using a new edition of the text? Was content rearranged? If you find that the content wasn’t covered, decide how to handle the points for that question.
• If the content was covered, look at the wording of the question as well as the answer options to determine if there was cause for misunderstanding. Again, if you decide something in the wording caused a misunderstanding, decide how to handle the points for that question.

 Would you like some tips for writing multiple choice questions?

Here are three articles discussing and containing good ideas for writing multiple choice test questions:

• 14 Rules for Writing Multiple-Choice Questions
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Writing Good Multiple Choice Test Questions

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Jeri Weiser

As a part-time instructional designer on the iDocs team, I partner with faculty in our online programs to design course content for successful delivery. I spend the other part of my time on the UW-Eau Claire campus providing assistance to College of Business faculty in their research. In addition, I provide D2L support for instructors and students both online and on campus. I’ve been a member of the iDocs team for seven years, have worked at UW-Eau Claire for 15 years, and received my B.A. from UWEC as well.

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