RationaleCritics declare that Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs, for brevity) assess only the lowest levels of student learning and offer students greater opportunities to guess at answers. They reward memorization while failing to stimulate communication, critical thinking, and analysis skills. These complaints are often justified, particularly in regards to MCQs garnered from textbook supplements. But MCQs as assessment items can be defended on several points. In most fields, multiple forms of assessment are necessary because none are comprehensive or without drawbacks. MCQs’ obvious advantage is that they can be quickly graded, more so with computer technology. It may be true that broadly, education in the information age should de-emphasize memorization in favor of learning interpretation and creation skills. But many instructors argue that in order to build or exercise these skills, even college students need to learn some basic facts or concepts that previous education, popular culture, or internet searches do not typically provide. Carefully written MCQs can even test somewhat higher-level learning, such as comparison, application, and possibly basic analysis, focusing on particular concepts. Unless employing a proctor or costly technologies and web services, an instructor cannot monitor student behavior if the student is taking an exam outside the classroom, either composing answers on paper or through a web-based exam system. A common assumption among faculty is that if a student has access to source material, such as a course textbook, their class notes, or the internet, then multiple choice questions are useless. But with careful question-writing and assessment design, MCQs can still be useful tools online. Quick quizzes, or sets of MCQs, can be useful formative assessments, serving as auto-graded, low-stakes homework that lets students know how they are doing. Employing features included in many learning management systems, even exams can have multiple choice questions that challenge students to demonstrate what they have learned. |