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The authors assessed the effects of using “none of the above” as an option in a 40-item, general-knowledge multiple-choice test administered to undergraduate students. Examinees who selected “none of the above” were given an incentive to write the correct answer to the question posed. Using “none of the above” as the keyed option made items much more difficult (d= −1.11). Furthermore, 45% of the time that examinees correctly selected “none of the above,” they wrote either a wrong answer (19%) or no answer (26%), and rescoring items to deny credit in these cases caused item discrimination to fall (d= −0.35). Thus, when “none of the above” is the keyed option, credit earned by examinees with knowledge deficiencies can make items appear to have more discriminatory power than is actually the case. The authors recommend that “none of the above” should not be used as an option in multiple-choice items. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The authors examined how the grading scheme affects learning and students' reactions to the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions. Undergraduate students (N = 141) took a general-knowledge multiple-choice test of low, medium, or high difficulty. They used the IFAT with a number-correct (NC), partial-credit (PC), or correction-for-guessing (CG) grading scheme. After 1 week, they retook the test using a traditional response form with an NC scheme. When the authors used the NC or PC scheme for Test 1, the number of correct answers increased by more than 30% on Test 2. However, the increase was only about half as large with the CG scheme, suggesting that it interferes with the IFAT's learning benefits. Responses to questionnaire items provided no strong clues regarding the origin of this difference. Participants in all treatment conditions had positive attitudes toward the IFAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT) is a new multiple-choice response form that has advantages over more commonly used response techniques. The IFAT, which is commercially available at reasonable cost and can be used conveniently with large classes, has an answer-until-correct format that provides students with immediate, corrective, item-by-item feedback. Advantages of this learner-centered response form are that it: (a) actively promotes learning; (b) allows students' partial knowledge to be rewarded with partial credit; (c) is strongly preferred by students over other response techniques; and (d) lets instructors more easily maintain the security of multiple choice (MC) items so that they can be reused from one semester to the next. The IFAT's major shortcoming is that grading must be done manually because it does not yet have a compatible optical scanning device. Helpful suggestions are presented for instructors who may be considering using the IFAT for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduates completed a questionnaire after using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), a commercially available answer form for multiple-choice (MC) testing that can be used easily and conveniently with large classes. This simple new technique for MC testing provides immediate feedback for each item in an answer-until-correct format and permits the earning of partial credit when the student's initial response is incorrect. Reaction to the IFAT was extremely positive, with students saying it was easy to use and contributed to their learning, and they indicated a strong desire to use the IFAT for all MC tests. Liking for the IFAT was not related to either personal characteristics or test performance variables, indicating that it has broad appeal to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]