Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions to Assess Learning: Measure What Matters— Evidence-Informed Tactics for Multiple-Choice Questions

by Patti Shank

If you’re an instructor or course developer—or simply train others—you need Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions . The information in this book will help you appropriately assess participant success and course quality. Research points to the multitude of course and competency assessments that are poorly written, measure the wrong things, and are difficult to understand. Any of these problems can result in frustrated and angry participants, useless assessment information, and possibly even legal battles. We must avoid these problems.

We know that well-written multiple-choice questions can efficiently measure a wide range of important learning outcomes, not just recall of course content (contrary to inaccurate popular opinion). And well-written, higher-level multiple-choice assessments can be an effective proxy for higher levels of measurement. “Well-written” means our Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions is a “how-to” guide for creating well-written multiple-choice questions for people who deliver or develop training and instruction. The explanations, examples, and exercises work together to build practical knowledge and skill in writing good, valuable, and relevant multiple-choice questions. It provides insights from practice and summaries of each chapter. The extensive bibliography includes both authoritative and contemporary references on common multiple-choice question writing issues.

Some of the most important issues discussed in this book Patti Shank, PhD, is an internationally-known workplace learning expert, instructional designer, researcher, and author who is regularly quoted as one of the most influential people in e-learning and instructional design. She speaks regularly at training and learning technology conferences and is the author of Write and Organize for Deeper Learning and Manage Memory for Deeper Learning , which are available internationally on Amazon. Her current evidence-based articles are available on eLearning Industry ( and elsewhere. Patti completed her PhD at the University of Colorado, Denver. Her research on new online learners won an EDMEDIA best research paper award.

Patti builds and facilitates blended online courses for individuals and teams, and you can find out more about her Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions She lives in Colorado, USA, with her husband and her cats, Max and Zoe. She loves to hike, watch “The Voice,” struggle with growing vegetables in a very short growing season, and attend live music and comedy. She’s truly passionate about the results needed from training and instruction and has spent her career helping others “do what works.”

198 pages, Paperback

Published August 30, 2021

Reviews

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in developing multiple choices tests or certification exams, or if you're already doing that but you want to improve them this book it's an absolute must.
Patti Shank distilled in this book all the science around the multiple choice test items writing techniques, and make them simple to understand and implement.
Every chapter has an exercise section and the bibliography section with all the references to books and papers from where she distilled the knowledge about the topic.
I found the book absolutely useful and enlightening.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be incredibly helpful. Some of it was good review while other parts challenged me to think more deeply about the assessment process. I loved the extensive and clear references to research throughout. I also found that each chapter was helpful. Often, books like this can have a lot of padding - that was not an issue found here! Overall, this was an informative read and will serve as a good reference to have on hand going forward.

[Bill Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Book We've Needed for a Long Time is Finally Here!

We write and encounter MCQs in many places. In many of those uses, they are done horribly wrong. Sad but true. Patti gives the remedy to bad MCQs. She backs it up with research. Quite frankly nothing should stop you from getting this book, reading it, and putting it into practice. Act now! It is that good!

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found it very helpful. I need to write quizz questions for e-learning and found this book very helpful. It gives directly instructions that are easy to understand and implement. Recommend it fully