Dichotomous

Description

Allows for the presentation of multiple true/false questions.

Rationale

I the 1980's and 90's fields such as Medicine heavily used this type of question. These questions begin with a statement which sets the scene so to speak. Below are then 5 statements which are either true or false. Because the probability of guessing the correct answer is 50/50 traditionally negative marking has been used. When this is in use an 'Abstain' column is presented to allow the candidate to signal that they don't know the answer and are awarded zero.

Fit Criterion

Presentation

• The UI should allow for 'True/False' labels to be used or 'Yes/No'.
• The option of adding an 'Abstain' column should be possible with negative marking.
• Presentation order should allow:
  • Display order as entered in the editor
  • Alphabetic - automatic by Rogo
  • Random - randomly shuffled at display time

Marking

Two basic marking methods are possible:

In either marking method academic staff should be able to specify the number of marks to award if correct and the number (possibly negative) if wrong. Marks correct should range from 1 to 20 and marks incorrect from 0 to -10 with the addition of -0.25 and -0.5.

Feedback

Feedback includes:

• Tick/Cross show what the student has got right/wrong
• Bold options show the correct answers
• Student mark out of possible number.
• Textual feedback is available for each option (different feedback can be written if the student gets it right as opposed to wrong)
• If standard setting has been used this should be displayed
• List of learning objectives that the question is linked to

Limited Save

After a question has locked it should only be possible to change the following aspects:

• The correct answers
• Status - only 'Normal' or 'Retired' (not 'Incomplete', 'Experimental' or 'Beta')
• Bloom's Taxonomy
• Keywords
• Teams

Standard Setting

• When 'Mark per Option' is used it should be possible to rate each correct option.
• When 'Mark per Question' is used there is only one rating per question.

Data Format

Correct Answer

Each option is stored as a different record in the options table. The 'correct' field will hold 't' if the option is true or 'f' it is false.

Student Answer

One record is used in the relevant log table to store the whole question answer. The individual answers are concatenated and stored in the 'user_answer' field thus:

• t = student selected True
• f = student selected False
• a = student selected Abstain
• u = student did not select anything (Unanswered)