Patti Shank

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How many answer choices is best for a multiple-choice question? Probably not what you think.

Patti Shank

Last week I discussed a quiz I developed to help people analyze what they know and don't know about developing valuable and valid multiple-choice questions (mcqs). The mcq quiz: [link]. Last week I shared the answer to one of the questions: Is “describe how to” a good behavior/action to use in a workplace learning objective? The answer is no and I explained why.

Quiz 130
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"Describe how to." is (usually) an inadequate learning objective

Patti Shank

I developed a quiz ([link] to help people analyze what they know and don't know about developing valuable and valid multiple-choice questions (mcqs). One of the questions: Is “Describe how to” a good behavior/action to use in a workplace learning objective? (select the best answer) “Describe how to” is a measurable behavior/action so it is appropriate to use in a workplace learning objective.

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Why multiple-choice questions are (too often) problematic

Patti Shank

Research shows that too many multiple-choice questions are written poorly and therefore create bad assessments. A few of the common issues with multiple-choice questions are, according to research, is that they too often are unclear or otherwise poorly written. are too easy to guess. only test recall of content. don't measure what they intend to measure. become a test of something other than whether the test taker knows the content.

Cognitive 162
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Non-Conscious Aspects Of Learning And Performance

Patti Shank

Being on autopilot has a lot of implications for learning and performance. Recently, Guy Wallace (@guywwallace on Twitter) posted about experts having difficulties figuring out what people must learn to perform a task. But experts often unintentionally leave things out. Their performance is highly automated so they no longer have conscious access to exactly what they are doing.

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Does Video Improve Engagement and Learning?

Patti Shank

A Huffington Post article title tells us that Research Confirms Video Improves Learning Results. According to the article, the author asked 500 learning practitioners if they believed that video improves learning outcomes. He measured respondents’ opinions of video. No learning outcomes were measured. A recent article about why we should use video explains that the brain prefers video because it retains visual content better than text content.

Video 100
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What Research Tells Us About Chunking Content

Patti Shank

Research by usability experts Nielsen Norman Group tells us that people prefer content that is logically divided or chunked. They define chunking as breaking up content into smaller, distinct units of information (chunks), as shown in the right column of Figure 1. This is as opposed to presenting content in homogeneous blocks like in the left column of Figure 1.

Research 100
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Does Time Matter For Learning? It Does.

Patti Shank

Stakeholders who request workplace training and other performance interventions often push for speed over quality. Workers are busy and time to learn is time where people could be accomplishing job tasks. We design primarily for speed as a result. Some of the most important learning tactics, such as adequate and varied practice and practice for remembering, are often left out.

Sales 100