Completion & Short Answer Items
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMPLETION AND SHORT ANSWER
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EXAMPLE OF A COMPLETION QUESTION
- The first Prime Minister of Canada was _________________.
EXAMPLE OF A SHORT ANSWER QUESTION
- Who was the first Prime Minister of Canada?
_____________________________
KEY: Sir John A. Macdonald
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- Completion = fill-in the blank
- Short Answer = answer the question
- when we say short answer, talking sentence or less
- more than one sentences or paragraph are short written response, because no longer objective items --> need more complex scoring scheme
ADVANTAGES
of Completion & Short Answer
In addition to usual advantages of objective items,
- Easy to build
- No guessing --> kid has to come up with answer rather than just recognize it
- Actually faster to answer than mc because no alternatives to read through
(unless require lot of writing, has problem with spelling)
- Better diagnostic info (see where they go wrong)
DISADVANTAGES
of Completion & Short Answer
- Hard to do higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy because limited to a few words
- Handwriting and spelling become bit of an issue
- "that's what I meant"
- afraid to respond because embarrassed by spelling
- Hard to write so it is clear to student what is expected
unclear completion.
(handwriting also demonstrated on this overhead)
- Hard to write because they can fill the blank with unintended responses
of unitended answers.
- Easier to bluff through ---> teachers hate giving filled in blanks zero
- one remedy is to announce that irrelevant responses will get zero
- could specify under blank, though usually unnecessary if carefully written