Education Resource Center Series: Writing Questions that Measure What Matters: Best Practices for Designing Multiple Choice Test Questions

In this 90-minute interactive workshop, facilitators will offer a framework for deciding when to use multiple choice as an appropriate assessment format, and a set of best practices for writing/revising multiple-choice questions.  Participants will work with colleagues in breakout groups to apply the best practices to update their own exam questions and are therefore encouraged to bring a copy of one of their existing multiple-choice quizzes or exams to work on during the session. Particularly as we prepare for finals, this workshop is recommended for university faculty and/or those assisting faculty with the design of assessments for courses or other educational offerings.  This might also be of interest to TAs and graduate students pursuing a career in teaching.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Determine whether a multiple-choice test is the most appropriate assessment format for their learning objectives
• Analyze multiple choice questions using a set of best practices for question design
• Revise multiple-choice questions to better align with best practices