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From the Item Bank

The Professional Testing Blog

 

Categories for Item Writing

Virtual Meetings—Good for the Interim But Less Than Ideal? – Part 1

February 2, 2021  | By  | 

By Christine Niero, Ph.D., Vice President, Professional Certification and Cynthia D. Woodley, Ed.D., Chief Operations Officer & Psychometrician Introduction As... View Article




Is it Time to Drop Option D? Considerations for Choosing the Three-Option Multiple Choice Item

June 29, 2017  | By  | 

Four-option multiple choice items are the most common item type used for credentialing exams.  These item types are chosen by... View Article




Evaluating New Item Types for Usability

June 1, 2016  | By  | 

Usability testing can significantly enhance the quality of alternative item types and is one method used in incorporating Universal Design... View Article




Remote Item Development – Benefits and Considerations

May 11, 2016  | By  | 

In the certification arena, a traditional model of item development consists of representative panels of content experts from various locations... View Article




The Hotspot – Why, When, and How to Use this Item Type

January 27, 2016  | By  | 

Overview In a Hotspot (HS) item the examinee responds to the question by clicking directly on an image. This is often a... View Article




Video – Why, When, and How to Use this Item Type

September 30, 2015  | By  | 

The video item type is useful across a wide range of content areas and exam programs. Video can be used to better represent crucial aspects of the profession. In addition, video can facilitate coverage of test content not easily measured with traditional written stems.




Alternative Item Types – The Big Picture

March 18, 2015  | By  | 

Alternative item types (AIT) is a catch-all term, and can refer to any item type that's new or a bit different from the standard multiple choice (MC) item. AITs are sometimes called innovative item types or technology-enhanced items.

This post is the first in a planned series on AITs. In this post we’ll consider why program staff might want to add AITs to an exam program and a useful approach to designing the item types so that they will be successful. Future posts will address some popular AITs individually, along with other factors to consider when implementing new item types.