Students Create Quiz Questions
Don't you dread and end up spending a lot of time creating really meaningful quiz and test questions? Or are you using questions provided by a publisher's quiz bank that don't quite always fit what you're trying to measure?
How about tasking the students with creating meaningful questions themselves?
Give them some guidance on how to develop a good question; for example (multiple choice):
- Start by identifying what is being tested--memorization of a fact or formula, identification of something specific, deeper understanding of a concept, ability to identify an example of a concept, etc.
- Do you want the students to know something, do something, or understand something?
- Write the correct answer.
- Think of ways that students might get the answer wrong and use those common errors as the wrong answers.
- Avoid using "always" and "never" in the question and answers.
- Check for grammatical consistency between the question and the answers.
- Avoid ridiculous distractors (obviously wrong answers).
- Also avoid "trick answers."
- Generally avoid "all of the above" or "none of the above."
- Have each student submit several possible questions.
- Ask students to evaluate each other's submissions for accuracy, clarity, and level of assessment (memorization, understanding, application).
- You might want to assign concepts, page numbers, terms, or concepts so that everyone doesn't choose the first or easiest ones.
- Comb through the suggested questions and eliminate or ask for revision on any that are not accurate or well-written.
- Then provide the remaining questions as a study guide.
- Be sure to thank all the contributors! You can even give "submitted by" attribution on the study guide or test.