Comparing Electronic Examination Methods for Assessing Engineering Students - The Case of Multiple-Choice Questions and Constructed Response Questions

Dimos Triantis, Errikos Ventouras, Ioanna Leraki, Charalampos Stergiopoulos, Ilias Stavrakas, George Hloupis

2014

Abstract

The aim of this work is the comparison of two well-known examination methods, the first consisted of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and the second based on constructed-response questions (CRQs). During this research MCQ and CRQ tests were created for examining the undergraduate engineering module of “project management” and were given to a group of students. Computers and a special software package were used to support the process. During the first part the examinees had to answer a set of CRQs. Afterwards, they had to answer a set of MCQs. Both sets covered the same topics and had the same level of difficulty. The second method (MCQs) is more objective in terms of grading, though it may conceal an error in the final formulation of the score when a student gives an answer based on an instinctive feeling. To eliminate this problem a set of MCQs pairs was composed taking care that each question of the pair addressed the same topic in a way that the similarity would not be evident to a student who did not possess adequate knowledge. By applying a suitable scoring rule to the MCQs, very similar results are obtained when comparing these two examination methods.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Triantis D., Ventouras E., Leraki I., Stergiopoulos C., Stavrakas I. and Hloupis G. (2014). Comparing Electronic Examination Methods for Assessing Engineering Students - The Case of Multiple-Choice Questions and Constructed Response Questions . In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-020-8, pages 126-132. DOI: 10.5220/0004848401260132

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu14,
author={Dimos Triantis and Errikos Ventouras and Ioanna Leraki and Charalampos Stergiopoulos and Ilias Stavrakas and George Hloupis},
title={Comparing Electronic Examination Methods for Assessing Engineering Students - The Case of Multiple-Choice Questions and Constructed Response Questions},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2014},
pages={126-132},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004848401260132},
isbn={978-989-758-020-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - Comparing Electronic Examination Methods for Assessing Engineering Students - The Case of Multiple-Choice Questions and Constructed Response Questions
SN - 978-989-758-020-8
AU - Triantis D.
AU - Ventouras E.
AU - Leraki I.
AU - Stergiopoulos C.
AU - Stavrakas I.
AU - Hloupis G.
PY - 2014
SP - 126
EP - 132
DO - 10.5220/0004848401260132