Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses

Guidance and resources to support EPICUR course development, cc-by-sa

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Interactive Test

Why interactive tests?

Interactive tests can be used, for example, as an initial test, self-test, or final test. Automated and detailed feedback on the answers as well as references to learning materials support students in their learning process and may also provide lecturers with information on whether learning objectives have been achieved.

5 key points about interactive tests

Interactive tests can be used at the start of a teaching unit, for example, to activate prior knowledge, determine the level of knowledge, arouse interest, and adjust learning objectives (diagnostic). They are suitable during a learning unit to support, guide or self-assess learning processes and to deepen knowledge. Self-tests are particularly suitable here (formative). At the end of a learning unit, tests can be used, for example, to determine learning success, enable transfer and stimulate further learning phases (summative).
There are different types of questions. Many of them can be evaluated automatically by the system, e.g. multiple/single choice, cloze, arrangement or assignment questions. Free text questions and file upload questions usually have to be (re-)corrected manually.
Generic (correct/incorrect) and usually also answer-sensitive feedback can be stored for the test questions, which can be called up during or after completion of the test. It is also possible to store hints and sample solutions. If questions are answered inadequately or incorrectly, reference can be made to content for repetition.
Tests can be personalized or anonymous with a fixed selection of questions or with questions that are randomly selected from a pool.
The lecturer can specify questions. However, the questions can also be developed by the students or together with them as part of the learning process.

Interactive tests in practice

Using Minitests in a Mathematics Course at SDU

Henrik Skov Midtiby, the teacher of this course designed a mini-test to serve two functions: 1. To provide an effective study tool for the students which helps them recall previous class content and apply it to new exercises and 2. To provide the teacher with insights into the students’ understanding and progress through the class. You can watch Henrik Skov Midtiby’s video ‘Encourage students to reflect on prior and current lectures with minitests’ which is published in the conference proceedings for Teaching for Active Learning Conference 2017, University of Southern Denmark. In the video, Henrik explains the rationale for the minitests, how he designed them and set them up and he shares evaluations and the second iteration of the minitest.

In following years, Henrik added a discursive feature to the mini test. The students were given the task to solve and then they we given two minutes to discuss the task prior to the test time started. During the two minutes the students were not allowed to write anything down, only to talk about the task. This generated a very nice scene where the students could discuss mathematics, albeit only for 2 minutes ...

Links to resources for interactive tests

National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). (n.d.). NBME’s Online Writing Tutorial Interactive tutorial: https://www2.nbme.org/nbme/IWTutorial/intro/index.html
Description: NBME's Online Writing Tutorial is a self-paced interactive tutorial that provides a foundation for writing quality multiple-choice questions. It gives you instant access to a walkthrough on the main principles of exam item writing and strategies for evaluating exam content.

Clay, B., & Root, E. (2001). Is this a trick question? A short guide to writing effective test questions: Kansas Curriculum Center. https://kgi.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16884coll42/id/147/
Description: A notable concern of many teachers is that they frequently have the task of constructing tests but have relatively little training or information to rely on in this task. “Is This a Trick Question?” is an easily accessible information sourcebook for writing effective test questions with both selected and constructed responses formats (multiple choice questions, fill-in the blank questions and essay questions). It gives a good overview of the different formats (incl. pros & cons) and when to use them based on the type of learning goals involved.

Writing Multiple-Choice Questions that Demand Critical Thinking. https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/teachingLibrary/Assessment/WritingMultiple.pdf
Description: A short note (8 pages) which contains concrete tips on how to use multiple-choice items as assessment for learning. It also contains practical examples and some techniques and examples of ‘shells’ for writing multiple-choice items that demand critical thinking.

References

National Board of Medical Examiners. (2021). Constructing written test questions for the basic and clinical sciences. Philadelphia, PA: National Board of Medical Examiners. https://www.nbme.org/item-writing-guide

Innovative Assessment

Author(s)

This resource sheet has been co-written or written by

Claudia Gayer (UFR)
Henrik Skov Midtiby (SDU)

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Next steps

If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.

Contact Details

Local teaching support units

EPICUR Institutional Coordinators

Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu

University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl

Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de

Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at

University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk

University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr

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Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Claudia Gayer, University of Freiburg, and Henrik Skov Midtiby, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Interactive Test (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Claudia Gayer, University of Freiburg, and Henrik Skov Midtiby, University of Southern Denmark. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .