According to assessment gurus Shrock & Coscarelli, the best way to improve assessments is to test above the Remember level. That means that instead of just testing whether learners can repeat information, truly Understand the information and can Apply it in relevant situations.
Below you can see questions about our free PowerPoint productivity add-in BrightSlide (*cough* subtle plug *cough*) written at three different learning levels: Remember, Understand, and Apply. Can you work out which level applies to which question?
1) What workflow should you follow when using phone numbers uae BrightSlide to replace an icon in a presentation? 2) What is BrightSlide? 3) What BrightSlide feature should you use if you want consistent animations across multiple presentations?
In the above example:
Question 2 is written at the Remember To answer correctly the learner just needs to have a basic knowledge of what BrightSlide is.
Question 3 is written at the Understand To answer correctly the learner needs a much deeper knowledge of BrightSlide and the different features it includes.
Question 1 is written at the Apply To answer correctly the learner needs to know how to use BrightSlide to carry out a specific task.
Mistake 4: Writing questions that are hard to understand
Multiple-choice questions that are hard to understand place an unfair cognitive load on learners. If your learners have to think hard just to understand the question, then they might struggle to get the right answer, even if they know it! Common issues that make questions hard to understand are include: