 The power of questions
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Types
of question
THE QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE
USED in interactive self-study can be classified into five types:Selecting
In selecting questions, the user simply picks from a range of options.
These are the most common questions and the simplest to develop. There are many varieties:
- at the simplest level, the user has to make a binary decision
– yes or no, true or false
- the ubiquitous multi-choice question offers the user a wider
range of alternatives – generally 3-6 – and allows the user to make a single
selection.
- a variant on this is to allow the user to make multiple
selections from a list; sometimes a fixed number of selections is asked for, at other
times it can be variable
- options do not need to be presented as text list; users may be
asked to select from a number of images or to click on a part of an image; they may be
asked to stop an audio or video sequence at a point where they recognise a particular
event or situation occurring
Supplying
With this type of question, the user supplies an answer by typing into a
text box. There are several variants:
- the user may be asked to answer in words or numbers
- the user’s answer may or may not be constrained in length
or form
- the user may be asked to supply a single answer or a series of
answers
Ordering/ranking
The purpose of this type of question is to have the user place a number of
items in sequence, whether this is their logical order or their order of importance. In
the case of the former, there will typically be one correct position for each item,
although there is no reason why items shouldn’t be accepted in a range of positions.
Matching
With this type of question the user identifies matched pairs, usually from
two lists. There may or may not be equal numbers of items in each list.
Locating
In this case, the user identifies the location of a part on a photo,
illustration or diagram. The user may have to locate a single item or a series of items.
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