{"id":818,"date":"2017-06-29T16:57:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/?p=818"},"modified":"2017-10-25T22:27:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T22:27:19","slug":"time-drop-option-d-considerations-choosing-three-option-multiple-choice-item","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/29\/time-drop-option-d-considerations-choosing-three-option-multiple-choice-item\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Time to Drop Option D? Considerations for Choosing the Three-Option Multiple Choice Item"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four-option multiple choice items are the most common item type used for credentialing exams. \u00a0These item types are chosen by most credentialing programs because candidates are familiar with them, they can be written at various cognitive levels, they are scored easily, and are good for statistical analysis.\u00a0 However, as any person who has ever been tasked with writing four-option multiple choice items can attest, coming up with three plausible distractors can prove difficult.<\/p>\n<p>And what about content that doesn\u2019t lend itself to four-option multiple choice items?\u00a0 Often times, the response options fit neatly into three categories instead of four.\u00a0 For example, consider the following response options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>increase, decrease, remain the same<\/li>\n<li>first party, second party, third party<\/li>\n<li>left, right, center<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When writing items with responses that fit neatly into three categories instead of four categories, item writers will often add a nonsensical or implausible distractor.\u00a0 Not only does this increase the reading burden of the test taker without adding any measurement validity, it could have a negative impact on the credibility of the exam.<\/p>\n<p>One solution to this problem is dropping the last distractor, and adopting three-option multiple choice items on your credentialing exam.\u00a0 Research suggests that three-option multiple choice item types perform about as well as four-option multiple choice items (i.e., they have comparable item discrimination and result in test validity similar to that of exams built with four-option multiple choice items).<\/p>\n<p>Below is list of articles to review if you are considering making the switch to three-option multiple choice items:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1877042814025233\"><strong>A Comparison between Three-and Four-Option Multiple Choice Questions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/17196192\/Further_Evidence_Favoring_Three-Option_Items_in_Multiple-Choice_Tests\"><strong>Further Evidence Favoring Three-Option Items in Multiple-Choice Tests<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.performancetest.org\/documents\/RodriqguesEdMeasurement3option.pdf\"><strong>Three Options Are Optimal for Multiple-Choice Items: A Meta-Analysis of 80 Years of Research<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the content assessed in your certification examination lends itself to three-option multiple choice items, consider making this change.\u00a0 Keep in mind that this could require retraining item writers, so work with your psychometrician to articulate the rationale for making this change so that it can be explained to item-writers, reviewers, and your candidate population.\u00a0 Also be sure item writers understand that the quality and difficulty of the examination are in no way being compromised, and that using three-option multiple choice questions can be of benefit to both content developers and test-takers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-option multiple choice items are the most common item type used for credentialing exams. \u00a0These item types are chosen by most credentialing programs because candidates are familiar with them, they can be written at various cognitive levels, they are scored easily, and are good for statistical analysis.\u00a0 However, as any person who has ever been&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/29\/time-drop-option-d-considerations-choosing-three-option-multiple-choice-item\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[77,134,53,69,135],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-item-writing","tag-credibility","tag-four-option","tag-item-writing","tag-multiple-choice","tag-three-option"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}