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704 Are Multiple Choice Questions Killing Critical Thinking Skills?
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, October 22
System-graded multiple-choice questions are easy to write and build. But not all situations have clearly right and clearly wrong answers. A doctor has to make a decision about a tough case. A customer service rep needs to respond to a challenging customer. A manager needs to navigate a seemingly no-win situation. It's completely normal to put a discussion or writing activity into a classroom program. But try to put in an ungradable question or activity into your eLearning course and you often hear: But we can't track the answers! How will they/we know if they got it right or wrong? Or How will we know they did it? Is the ability to grade and track turning us into control freaks? If we limit our designs to questions that can easily be system-graded and tracked, we miss out on the chance to let learners practice critical thinking skills and nuanced decision-making.
In this fast-paced session, you'll learn to distinguish when the ability to grade and track is important—and when it gets in the way of doing something instructionally valuable. You'll get inspiration from real-life examples showing how learners can explore a concept and try it out for themselves in creative ways. Of course, it would be hypocritical to have a session on practice activities without giving you the chance to try it yourself. You'll consider some stereotypical multiple-choice questions and brainstorm ways to transform them into practice activities that are more helpful, relevant, and engaging. You'll walk away with tons of ideas, along with templates to help you plan out your own interactions.
In this session, you will learn:
- To let go of your inner tracking control freak
- To approach question/interaction design more creatively
- To design practice activities that truly build skills
- To create interactions that promote critical thinking
Technology discussed in this session:
Storyline, Captivate
Diane Elkins
Owner/Founder
E-Learning Uncovered
Diane Elkins is owner of Artisan E-Learning, a custom eLearning development company, and E-Learning Uncovered, where she helps people build courses they're proud of. She has built a reputation as a national eLearning expert by being a frequent speaker at major industry events for ATD, The Learning Guild, and Training Magazine. Her favorite topics include accessibility, instructional design, and Articulate Storyline. She is co-author of the popular E-Learning Uncovered book series, as well as E-Learning Fundamentals: A Practical Guide, from ATD Press. She is a past board member of the Northeast Florida and Metro DC chapters of ATD.
Amy Morrisey
President
Artisan E-Learning
Amy Morrisey, president of Artisan E-Learning, has spent her career in learning and development. Before working with Artisan, Amy spent 17 years in corporate training as a classroom trainer and executive coach teaching sales training and coaching international teams to deliver persuasive business case presentations. Amy has helped Artisan define its culture, drive business goals with real data, and realize operational efficiencies to double production capacity. While the day-to-day operation of the company takes most of her time, her passion for giving learners solid training with actionable results means that she's usually elbow-deep in a project or two as well.