While standardized testing and multiple-choice items tend to go hand in hand, there’s a whole world of innovative assessment options beyond the classic stem-key-distractor paradigm. Amy and Mike invited assessment expert Brian Moon to describe alternatives to multiple-choice.

What are five things you will learn in this episode?

1. Why have multiple-choice questions become so prevalent in standardized assessments?
2. What are the disadvantages of multiple choice?
3. What are the best alternatives to multiple-choice questions? 
4. Why don’t more knowledge tests implement alternatives to multiple-choice?
5. What upcoming innovations in assessments appear most promising?

MEET OUR GUEST

Brian Moon is founder and Chief Technology Officer for Perigean Technologies LLC and founder and President of Sero! Learning Assessments, Inc. He is widely recognized for his innovative applications of concept mapping, which are highlighted in the edited volume, Applied Concept Mapping: Capturing, Analyzing, and Organizing Knowledge and have led to the development of Sero!, a concept mapping based-learning assessment system. His consulting clients have included Fortune 500 companies and many US Federal Agencies. 

Brian is also the co-host of the Beyond Multiple Choice Conference and Exhibition.

Find Brian at [email protected].

LINKS

Beyond Multiple Choice – The future of assessment

The History of the Multiple-Choice Question

Anatomy of a Test Question – Chariot Learning

RELATED EPISODES

HOW TESTS DRIVE LEARNING

DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE LEVELS ON THE SAT AND ACT

THE HISTORICAL MISSION OF THE SAT

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page.