Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Planning a Test
• General Rules for Item Writing
• Selected Response Items
• Constructed Response Items
• Context-Dependent Items

Nurs 791 - Instructional Strategies and Assessment

Module 10: Test Planning to Item Development

Constructed Response Items

Constructed response items require the respondent to provide a response rather than select from responses that are presented to them. Therefore these types of items are categorized as “supply” type. Two types of these – completion and essay – are addressed in this course.

Completion Items

Completion items, sometimes called short-answer items, are discussed in your text. In addition, the University of California Santa Barbara offers some helpful guidelines for writing completion items as well as some advantages and disadvantages of their use.

It is important to be aware of strengths and limitations of completion items.

Essay Items

The greatest use of essay items tends to be in assessing learning of higher level objectives addressing a range of learning outcomes. Guidelines for writing essay items are discussed in your text.

Essay items may have responses of varying length – either restrictive (short responses such as a few sentences or somewhat longer) or extended (longer responses and respondents may be offered choices in how they develop their response – e.g. a narrative, a lesson plan, or discharge plan). Once again, clarity of the instructions provided as part of the item is essential so that respondents know how they are to respond. For example, “…writing a few sentences” versus developing a response “…describing at least five reasons why access to care is a particular issue in planning for discharge of a chronically ill patient and proposing one strategy to deal with each of these.” Particular issues with essay items are discussed in your text.