Assessment and Reporting

Our interactive quiz solution and story library provide an opportunity for formative assessment, with results fed through instantly into the teacher's dashboard

Why we use multiple choice questions:

Professor Rob Coe's simple theory of learning argues that 'learning happens when you have to think hard about subject content', which is why multiple choice questions work.

Here are some of the reasons why I think they can benefit teaching:

1. They make assessment more reliable
2. They make marking far less labour-intensive
3. They make pupil understanding more visible to teachers

Let's explore the first and third point.

They make assessment more reliable

Multiple-choice questions are hard to set but are always reliable to assess. Paul Bambrick Santoyo makes the following case: In an open-ended question, the rubric defines the rigour; In a multiple choice question, the options define the rigour; Effective assessment combines them: both are useful.