When do you choose open-ended questions or multiple choice questions?

How can you be sure that your online training lasts? Right, by to make good test questions. This way, you can test their knowledge and know what is good to repeat. At the same time, your participants practice with the material so actively, which makes them more likely to remember it. In addition, it is important that you ask the right questions. Every type of question because it has its own advantages and disadvantages. In this blog, we discuss three common types of questions that are ideal for your e-learning.

What types of test questions can you make?

1. Create multiple choice questions

Also known as the “multiple choice”. You give the student a number of possible answers, from which to choose one. This question is ideal for testing factual knowledge.

Benefits:

• It takes students relatively little time to answer the question. This allows you to test a lot of knowledge in a short time.
• Multiple choice questions ask for specific knowledge. As an instructor, you therefore make a selection of the material. This helps your students determine what's important to remember.
• Convenient for you: in a online learning environment as Pluvo, students' scores are calculated automatically. This saves a lot of checking time.

Cons:

• The wording of the answer options is quite precise. This is because if the 'wrong' options are unlikely, you give away the correct answer too easily.
• Plus, if the options can be interpreted in multiple ways, or are not clearly “right” or “wrong,” you won't get fair results.
• Finally, you're not good at going into depth with this question. The open question is more suitable for that.
• If the student starts gambling, he still has a considerable chance of gambling properly. If you want to check this, you can repeat questions in a slightly different form.

A variant of the multiple choice question is a question where multiple answers are correct. Another variant is the “yes-no” question. For example, “Can you park here? a) yes, b) no'.

2. Create open questions

Do you want to test insight, or test whether your student can apply the material himself? Then the open question is the best option.

Benefits:

• You give away much less than with the multiple choice question. This gives you a good idea of what your student can and understands.
• Suitable for questions where there is no single correct answer.
• You will not only test your student's actual knowledge and insight, but also his analytical skills and ability to argue.
• Ideal for questions where the answer depends on the person, such as opinions and preferences.

Cons:

• This question does mean more checking time.
• The wording of your question is very precise. If you are not paying attention, ask about something other than you want to know or worse: the student does not understand the question.

Tip: Enter a maximum number of words or characters to avoid unnecessary digressions.

3. Create “Fill in the blanks” questions

In the “fill in the blanks” or “fill in the empty fields”, you have your students type in the missing words in a sentence. For example: “In the trias politica model, the state consists of three organs: ___power, ____ power, and ____-power.” This question is suitable for testing factual knowledge, such as names, years and concepts.

Benefits:

• Because you are not showing the correct answer (as with the multiple choice question), the student really has to come up with the answer himself. So you're making greater use of his knowledge.
• As with the multiple choice question, there is only one correct answer. The points are therefore calculated automatically, what do you check? piece of cakeShe tastes.

Cons:

• Like the multiple choice question, this type is less suitable for testing insight.
• You have to make sure that only one correct answer is possible

Note: In the example, it does not matter in which order the student names the three state bodies. In such a case, make sure that all possible combinations are properly calculated.

Create more question types

Of course, these are not the only ones question types. In Pluvo, for example, you can also choose the 'match' question, where you have to drag elements that belong together to the right place. Or the sorting question: here you drag elements in the correct order. These question types are similar to the multiple choice question but are more interactive.

In addition to creating test questions, there are also very other ways to to test knowledge. Click through, and read more.

So many options to vary! Find out for yourself.