Formats and Question Types

Question Types

Decide how many questions, and what types of questions will be on the exam. The number and type of questions will influence how long it takes students to complete the exam, so you can use that to guide the decision. In addition, you may want to decide how many questions to include by making sure you have a certain number of questions about important learning outcomes. Learning outcomes can also influence what types of questions to include – some learning outcomes are more easily assessed with different types of questions.

Here are some common options for question types:

Multiple Choice

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are easy to grade, which makes them a good choice for larger classes. The easiest type of learning objective to test with MCQs are low-level ones that require simply remembering or understanding information. However, MCQs can also be written to test higher-level learning outcomes that require application, analysis or evaluation.

MCQs are prone to being easily searchable online, and the correct answers can be easily shared between peers. Try to write questions so that the answer is not easily found online. It’s also a good idea to randomize which questions each student gets from a larger question pool so that students can’t easily share answers with each other. For more information about question randomization, see Assessment Design Recommendations in the Academic Integrity Toolkit.

Short Answer and Essay

Short answer and essay questions require students to answer in their own words. This often requires them to apply, analyze, or evaluate, and therefore is testing higher-level learning objectives. This type of question can’t be graded automatically and requires a marker to read and assess each response, so they take longer to grade. However, if you have a smaller number of students, create a good rubric and/or have TAs who can assist with marking, they are a great option.

It’s relatively easy to detect if students have shared information with each other either just by noticing striking similarities between different student’s responses, or by using text similarity checking software like Turnitin.

Question Presentation/Navigation

Brightspace allows you a few options for presenting questions to students.

Free Navigation

You can have all questions show up on one page. This allows students to scroll up and down as they like to answer questions. This is the format that is the most similar to what they experience in an in-person exam, and it’s the format they are the most familiar with. Many students have been taught exam-taking strategies that assume they will have access to all questions. For example, we often recommend that students read through the entire exam first, then answer easier questions, leaving tougher questions until the end.

One-Way Exams (“No-Backsies”)

Some instructors have chosen not to present all questions at once in online exams. This may be for simple navigation reasons (so students don’t need to scroll as much on an individual page), or it may be due to concerns around academic integrity.

In a one-way exam, only a few – or sometimes only one – questions appear on each page. Once the student submits their answer and moves on to the next page, they are not able to navigate back to previous questions and adjust their answers.

Student feedback about one-way exams has been negative, primarily because they are unable to enact their typical exam strategies in this kind of exam, so this format can negatively impact student performance. However, students seem to be much less averse to the strategy when they have been informed well in advance that this will be the format of the exam. If you have a good reason to implement one-way exams, it’s important to let students know as early as possible.