Selecting the right assessment type

The reality is that these approaches to assessing a learner may not always be the best choice. How can you be sure that a student pilot can safely fly a plane using a 100-question multiple choice exam? How do you know if a customer service agent is truly able to handle a difficult customer from their answers to a series of true-false statements? How can you be certain that an analyst can correctly process the company's financials from a multiple choice test that focuses on their knowledge and not their abilities? Using the incorrect type of assessment in your eLearning course is akin to issuing 16-year old teenagers a driver's license after they pass just the written exam.

Figure 4 shows a simple process you can use to avoid such risks and select the right kind of assessment for your instructional needs.

Figure 4. The eLearning assessment process.

The first step in the process is to visit the instructional goals and objectives of your course. Second, Clark (2008) asserted that every instructional objective can be categorized into one of five types: fact, concept, process, procedure, or principle. Using the details shown in Figure 5, classify each of your instructional objectives as one of these five categories. Doing so will give you valuable clues to the proper way to assess your learner.

Figure 5. Categorizing instructional objectives (Adapted from Clark, 2008).

The third step is to select the most appropriate assessment for your objectives. The table in Figure 6 lists Clark's five objective categories on the left and the different types of assessment items offered by Adobe Captivate® 3. As you can see, certain types of assessment items are recommended for particular types of objectives. For example, if you are asking your learners to master facts or concepts about global warming, then creating essay, hotspot, matching, multiple choice, or short answer test items could provide an effective means to assess your learner. If you are teaching them how to perform procedures in software such as Microsoft Word, a common multiple choice or matching activity could work, but asking them to order the steps of the procedure using a sequencing test item or asking them to actually perform the task in a software simulation would be better. If you are teaching soft skills where answers are not always black and white, such as dealing with customer conflicts, providing a way for your learners to respond to problems in a written form or through structured scenarios would enable you to more effectively assess their abilities.

Figure 6. Types of assessment and objectives.

Note: True-False question types can be used for motivational purposes. For the purpose
of assessment they are not recommended as the learner has a 50/50 chance of being correct.

After you've identified the proper type of assessment, the next steps are to design and develop the test items. The specific steps to create each type of item in Adobe Captivate varies. For more information on how to design and develop the types you've identified, refer to the online help for creating question slides.

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