4. Characteristics of
objectives
• Specific and focused
• Targets performance
• Realistic to achieve
• Can be measured and validated
• Time-bound with a deadline
25. Vignettes NBME
• “..we believe vignette items are generally
more appropriate ..”
–test application of knowledge to
patient situations
–pose appropriate clinical challenges
35. Irrelevant Difficulty
BAD
• Options are long, complicated
• Numeric data not stated
consistently
• Vague – “rarely”
• Avoid all/none of the above
• Hinged responses
55. Linking Learning to Assessment
1. Writing learning objectives
2. Relating objectives to assessment
3. Writing assessment questions
4. How to analyze knowledge tests for
discrimination
56. References
1. Case SM, Swanson DB, Becker DF. Verbosity, window
dressing, and red herrings: do they make a better test item?
Academic Medicine. 1996;71:528-530.
2. NBME Constructing Written Test Questions for the Basic and
Clinical Sciences
3. Haladyna, T. M., & Downing, S. M. (1989a). A taxonomy of
multiple-choice item-writing rules. Applied Measurement in
Education, 2(1), 37-50.
4. Frisbie, D. A. (1990, April). The evolution of the multiple true-
false item format. Paper presented attheAnual Meeting of
the National Council on Measurement in Education, Boston.
57. • Sands (2002), the “basic precept of course-
planning [is]: What do [you] want students to
be able to do at the end of the semester?” In
other words, course goals and objectives
should guide the design of your course rather
than technology (Aycock, Garnham, &Kaleta,
2002). Sands’ first principle for developing a
blended course is to “work backward from the
final course goal…to avoid a
counterproductive focus on technology.”
Notes de l'éditeur
What do the students have to do to correctly answer the test questions? That is the objective.
Coming up with plausible distractors requires a certain amount of skill
the added disadvantage of providing clues that help students with only partialknowledge detect the correct combination of alternatives.
If you must use a negative in the stem, use only short (preferably single word options), emphasize the negative.