Designing and Managing MCQs:

Chapter 1. Purpose of this Handbook

• 1.1 This handbook is designed to:
• 1.2 Experience of MCQs in departments at UCT:
• 1.3 The Technology Assisted Testing (TAT) programme:

1.1 This handbook is designed to:

• familiarise UCT staff with the benefits and limitations of using Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs);
• explain how the Technology Assisted Testing (TAT) programme at UCT can help individual lecturers and departments;
• provide lecturers and departments with basic advice and guidelines about designing, administering and marking MCQs.

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1.2 Experience of MCQs in departments at UCT:

A number of departments at UCT have been using MCQs for many years. The experience has generally been that:

• the use of MCQs has not resulted in lower standards of certification;
• there is a good correlation between results obtained from such tests and more traditional forms of assessment, such as essays.

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1.3 The Technology Assisted Testing (TAT) programme:

There is a growing interest in the use of MCQs in departments across UCT, including the faculties of Arts and Social Science. This interest has been driven by

• the need to find more efficient ways of assessing those knowledge areas which do not need to be tested by essays or other traditional methods;
• a growing awareness that MCQs, used appropriately, can be powerful teaching and diagnostic tools.

In response to this growing interest in MCQs, Information Technology Services (ITS) has established the Technology Assisted Testing (TAT) programme. The basic aims of the programme are:

• to set up an efficient service for marking and analysing MCQs - either administered by "pen and paper" tests, or by students using computer terminals, wheresuch a facility is available.
• to encourage the use of TAT, where appropriate, and provide advice and assistance to those departmentswhich want to participate in the programme.

Individual lecturers can make use of the TAT programme - and this guide - but the most effective ways of developing MCQs is to integrate them into the design of courses, and this needs to be done at departmental or course-team level.

For more information on the TAT programme, see our TAT CBE page

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