1. Use of multiple-choice questions for summative assessment in Law Law for Estate Managers BSc (Hons) - 1 st Year Carrie de Silva

2. Why bother? Example questions Results Academic issues Operational issues Next steps Resources

3. Why bother? Objective - no marker discretion Efficient to mark!!!??? Fast to complete, thus possible to test a wide range of syllabus Opportunity to review assessment models and tools

4. Example questions To what date can the development of our legal system be traced? 1. 1666 2. 1066 3. 1837 4. 1701 5. I choose not to answer this question What are the two legal estates in land? 1. Commonhold and freehold 2. Leasehold and commonhold 3. Leasehold and freehold 4. Fee simple and fee tail 5. I choose not to answer this question

5. Example questions In order to take a successful action in private nuisance, the claimant must: 1.Have a proprietary interest in the land 2.Be sensitive to disturbances 3.Have lived in the property for a year 4.Be a member of the family of the land owner 5.I choose not to answer this question The name of the seminal case in the law relating to liability for economic loss as the result of negligent misstatements is: 1.Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 2.Hedley Byrne & Co. v Heller & Partners [1963] 3.Harris v Wye Forest DC [1989] 4.Howard Marine and Dredging Co. Ltd v Ogden [1978] 5.I choose not to answer this question

6. Results 40 MCQs replaced 40 short questions which had been a 50% element of exam for several years. 50% of exam marks available for two essays, as usual. A and B grades not significantly different More E and F, fewer C and D A lot of students opted not to answer questions. Essay questions actually stronger than in previous years so overall results profile not significantly different. Probably as MCQs so fast to complete thus allowing more time for essays.

7. Academic issues questions suitably testing comprehension and application to be tested as well as pure knowledge acquisition - fear of ‘dumbing down’ / rote learning / surface learning questions to which answer is clear and absolute there is scope to have more than one right answer or ‘near miss’ but this first run was kept simple questions which avoid success by guesswork i.e. writing effective questions needs considerable thought

8. Operational issues Students completing sheets incorrectly Students choosing not to answer questions Better preparation of students required give feedback on practice tests give earlier practice tests Better design of answer sheets Clearer instructions on question sheet More effective computer marking

9. Next stage Read more widely about question design - care with language formulation, not simply subject issues Analyse marks against past 5 years of short question marks Analyse marks against course average results Analyse student responses to help eliminate questions which are too easy, too difficult, misleading, etc. Develop question bank.

10. Resources BILETA- British + Irish Legal Education and Tech. Assoc. CALI - Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (US) HEA UKCLE - UK Centre for Legal Education ALT - Association for Learning Technology Higgins, Edwina and Tatham, Laura ‘Exploring the potential of Multiple- Choice Questions in Assessment’ Learning and Teaching in Action, vol 2, 1, February 2003. Higgins, Edwina and Tatham, Laura (2010) ‘Assessing by multiple choice question tests.’ UK Centre for Legal Education.