title: Assessing the quality of multiple-choice test items.
abstract: With the focus of nursing education geared toward teaching students to think critically, faculty need to assure that test items require students to use a high level of cognitive processing. To evaluate their examinations, the authors assessed multiple-choice test items on final nursing examinations. The assessment included determining cognitive learning levels and frequency of items among 3 adult health courses, comparing difficulty values with cognitive learning levels, and examining discrimination values and the relationship to distracter performance.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Lourdes College, 6832 Convent Blvd, Sylvania, OH 43560, USA. cschriner@lourdes.edu
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Clifton
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Schriner
mesh_terms: D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D013338:Students, Nursing; D013663:Teaching