<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"><base href="x-msg://82/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">this is the ultimate test for exam writers!! and that is why there is always so much "debate" about questions in the post exam phase!!<div><br></div><div>first understand the philosophy</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>are you testing for the sake of testing? (Or training to do tests?)</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>do you actually want them to display regurgitation techniques, knowledge, understanding, interpretative understanding or wisdom?</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>do you have a homogenous test pool/candidates?</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>is this for formative feedback, summative feedback, or just to jump through a hoop?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>so when you answer the above satisfactorily (minimum 5000 words with a significant literature search and some evidence of action research conducted in a real life scenario and all peer reviewed)</div><div>then...</div><div><br></div><div>1. with a homogenous group go straight to interpretation</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>with a diverse group give some simple questions so that their confidence is built and they get some runs on the board - makes you look good and they feel better)</div><div><br></div><div>2. a good question is one that they have to think to answer; </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>they must display knowledge relevant to the course; </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must be predictable so that they can have prepared for it; </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must be novel (new) so that they cannot prepare a set answer; </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must be different so that merely doing past papers is not enough;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must be simple enough to be accessible to all;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must be complicated enough to separate out the better students from the less competent;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must relate directly to the course;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it must take what is in the course to be able to answer it;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>it should enable better students to display knowledge beyond the mere course...</div><div><br></div><div>3. when you get the answer to this one please share<br><div><br></div><div>4. easy to mark? multiple choice. have between two and ten choices for each question. vary the number of choices from question to question.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>otherwise see answer to q 3</div><div><br></div><div>I like writing exams but find it hard to do it well. marking them afterwards always leads to what ifs and a realisation that there was material i just did not do as well with them as i had thought.</div><div>ego...</div><div><br></div><div>good luck * grin*</div><div><br></div><div>Andrew</div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Andrew Shortell</div><div>Educator</div><div>CRC Melton</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="mailto:shortell@get2me.net">shortell@get2me.net</a> (This List)</div><div>@acsbear8 (twitter)</div></div></span>VITTA CoM Member</div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On 29/11/2012, at 5:29 PM, "O'Grady, Liam A" <<a href="mailto:o'grady.liam.a@edumail.vic.gov.au">o'grady.liam.a@edumail.vic.gov.au</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-AU" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Hi Everyone,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">What makes a good exam/test question for IT? Do you have any that you would be happy to share?<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Recently I was writing my yr 11 exams and trying to improve the questions I had that really give kids a chance to show their understanding of IT. The following questions arose in this process:<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -18pt; "><span>1.<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>How much should questions be about factual recall and how much about how to apply the knowledge?<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -18pt; "><span>2.<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>What is a good question?<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -18pt; "><span>3.<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>How could we write questions that are interesting enough that the kids want to answer them?<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -18pt; "><span>4.<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>How can we write a good question and make it easy to mark? For example, the question below whilst having scope for more detailed answers could also be harder to mark fairly.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">One question I came up with is below. This is NOT a model question – just my attempt to get the ball rolling.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><b>Question 7<o:p></o:p></b></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">St Mungo’s is a large hospital network with hospitals in all Australian capital cities. All computer servers run from a datacentre in the main hospital in Hobart. These servers contain all the electronic information used by the hospital. This includes patient medical records, billing details, medical operations scheduling, staff details and the ordering system for medical supplies. All other branches connect to the datacentre via a VPN connection through the Internet.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">They are thinking about moving to Cloud Computing because it is very expensive running their own datacentre in terms of staff and hardware. A couple of times recently there have been power failures in the datacentre which has meant that none of the hospitals could access the information needed to run.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 18pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; "><span>a)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>What would you recommend that they do? Justify your recommendation. (4 Marks)<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Cheers<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Liam O’Grady<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Brunswick Secondary College<o:p></o:p></div></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p><b>Important -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. 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