EXERCISE 12.2: WRITING ITEMS TO ASSESS KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVE: To develop high-quality items to assess knowledge of a specific domain.

Students sometimes complain that items on a test are vague, exceedingly difficult, or even unrelated to the topics presented in the course. Here’s your opportunity to see what it’s like to create those items yourself.

For this exercise, you will develop a knowledge test that contains a minimum of 25 constructed-response (e.g., matching, multiple-choice, and true-false) items and 3 short-answer essay items. In completing this exercise, heed the following instructions:
A. Carefully define the domain that you are seeking to test.
• Perhaps consider a course that you have recently taken or a course for which you may have served as a teaching assistant. However, any domain of knowledge that can be clearly defined is acceptable, from knowledge of basic photography to knowledge of plot and character development on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series.
B. For the constructed-response items, choose a format (or formats) that is appropriate to assess the level of abstraction for the domain you are assessing.
• Justify your selection of each item format chosen.
C. Attempt to write items that will representatively sample the entire content domain.
D. Avoid all common pitfalls in item writing.
E. Identify the appropriate response to each constructed-response item.