The Beyond Multiple Choice team has exciting news to share! Pre-COVID, the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group worked together with SimBio, a company that develops multi-media tutorials and simulated modules for undergraduate biology, in a research study. AACR developed questions that were embedded into a SimBio learning module about Cell Respiration; then compared student performance pre/post module. The results showed that students from all institution types (geographically diverse institutions including two-year colleges, undergraduate institutions, and research-focused universities) included more scientific ideas in constructed responses (CR) after working through the tutorial.
Standard multiple-choice questions given to students are highly constrained modalities, while essay-style questions are considered to be less constrained; both are difficult to score using automated tools. The results of the study reflect that a Constructed Response Classifier (CRC) tool can be implemented to measure student learning and provide an expanded view of student thinking, which often has a mix of scientific and non-scientific ideas. Constructed Response questions allow students to show what they know in a way that may not be possible using standard multiple-choice or essay questions.
Read the article in SimBio (Simulated Biology. Real Learning)
Read study lead by Juli Uhl in CBE - Life Sciences Edition
