2.4 Student perspectives on good test items

The video "Student Perspectives on Good Test Items" by Anne Torgersen*, NMBU is the 7th of 10 videos of the SPOC "Writing items for measuring student progress" produced within the VetRepos Project.

The video emphasizes the importance of considering students' viewpoints when designing effective test items. It discusses how Multiple-Choice Question tests are commonly used throughout undergraduate courses (within health sciences including veterinary science), and how students may become test savvy if items are not well written with plausible distractors.
The video highlights two studies that discuss and demonstrate the value of including student input in the creation of test items: One study, regarding fourth-year medical students creating test items related to clinical surgery (see reference 1). Another study, concerning radiology student residents writing test items, which are psychometrically compared to items written by teachers and covering the same content (see reference 2).
The video further stresses the need for test items to cover relevant areas of the curriculum, different levels of Bloom's taxonomy, and Miller's triangle, with plausible distractors. This is supported by examples of veterinary students' feedback to modular formative tests offered at the Norwegian veterinary undergraduate education.
The video concludes that using psychometric analyses to quality control test items is crucial, and teachers can gain valuable input from students in creating effective test items.

* Anne Torgersen is now emploied by AniCura, Oslo

This was the last video in this module 2. Module of the SPOC concerns basic concepts in test theory, including measuring scales, validity concepts

2.4 Student perspectives on good test items

Further reading