How to create an effective test or survey instrument Verna Rochon, corporate trainer

Importance of testing in Psychology and education “Testing, in education and psychology, is an attempt to measure a person's knowledge, intelligence, or other characteristics in a systematic way.” a2zpsychology.com (2002-2010) Importance of testing in Psychology and education, retrieved from, http://www.a2zpsychology.com/articles/importance_of_testing_in_psychol ogy.htm

How to create a surveymonkey account To create an account you must go to www.surveymonkey.com Create an account with your user name, password and email information You will have the option to create a free account or to purchase an account depending on your usage

Creating a survey Next you will be prompted to create a survey You have the option to create one from your own questions or pull from a database of questions that are preset in the system You will be able to save, reuse or edit the survey once it is completed

What are you testing? Help Learners to measure their progress Whether a survey or a test you need to determine what you are testing first. “Today the word "survey" is used most often to describe a method of gathering information from a sample of individuals. This "sample" is usually just a fraction of the population being studied. Stated by Scheuren, F. (n.d.) in his dialogue entitled “What is a Survey?” Before you can create a test or survey you must know what you are testing for. Know your students What is the population of people you are surveying Measure progress Help Learners to measure their progress Certify learners knowledge Certify learners skill Motivate Learning

Building your test or survey With this system you have the option build your own test or use one from the numerous surveys created. You must give your survey a name to locate when needed

Best ways to set up or create tests to accomplish goals Purpose of test Best way to test Scores Feedback Measure Progress End of topic test Yes Numeric at the end Help Learners track their progress Short tests done often No Clear direct and or numeric in nature Certify Learners Knowledge Proctored, standardized, legal Pass-fail overall score Possible re-do if components not passed Certify Skill of Learner Accomplishment of tasks Motivate Learning Informal pre-tests Recommended areas of study

What are you measuring? Before you create a test or survey you need to determine what objective needs to be accomplished. Will questions be: Subjective: require human judgement Open ended: response dependent on the learner Objective: clear standards for correct anwser

Types of questions Matching-list Sequence True/False Make categorical, either-or judgments Pick- one One correct answer Pick Multiple Multiple correct Recognize characteristics that apply Fill-in-the-blanks Recall names, numbers and other specifics Matching-list Identifying associations Sequence Identify the order in a sequence Chronological order or ranking

Effective questions and answers Pick questions from a pool of available questions Monitor results to adjust questions that may be too hard Questions that are too easy should be changed If large amounts of questions are left unanswered you may need to lower number of questions or increase time Use the shuffle answers process to randomize answers for pick one or multiple question types Program system to give feedback instead of correct answer when wrong answer is guessed

Feedback Providing feedback is important for the learner to understand what they may need to review. Provide feedback quickly after tests Make feedback brief Provide ample time for feedback to be read Do not give away the answer to another question Provide links for remediation if needed Evaluating at the end allows for more targeted feedback If you postpone feedback, it can cause frustration to learners

Results There are numerous ways to collect the data needed in our technologically saavy environment. Depending on what data you are collecting, these methods are normally assessing to all.

Sample of a customer service satisfaction template According to Wyse (2012) in her blog, The 4 Main Reasons to conduct surveys, she states that Uncover answers Evoke discussion Base decisions on objective information Compare results

Summary Page Data Summary page is where your information on the various surveys you have created is shown. You can compare your results with those of other companies

Conclusion Tests and surveys are similar as they address people on various questions. The methods that they are presented will vary and the answers will be different as well. However it is necessary to find out the answers to questions and to certify that students are learning, when tests are done. Surveys also provide necessary feedback on an infinite amount of items. Knowing what you are trying to find out in advance allows a method to create the test or survey to fit the proper sampling of people. If the methods discussed are followed, results should prove beneficial.