using spreadsheets to quickly author hundreds of...

Using Spreadsheets to Quickly Author Hundreds of MCQs

By Bob McMullen, EdD, PA-C

Associate Professor Department of PA Studies

A. T. Still University Mesa, AZ

[email protected] Cell: 480-278-2100

PAEA 2015 Education Forum

Nov 11-15 Crystal Gateway Marriott

Financial Disclaimer

Although I will be mentioning many software products by brand name, I have no financial

interest in any of them

Objectives

1.Review the pedagogy pertaining to learning from testing, i.e. "The Testing Effect"

2.Describe how to create numerous distractors very quickly for MCQs

3.Demonstrate how to use concatenation in spreadsheets to create hundreds (or thousands) of unique MCQs for use in repetitive testing

I am a TRUE Believer!!!!!

Testing Effect*1- Roediger, H. and Karpicke, J. (2006) ‘The Power of Testing Memory, Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice’, Perspectives on Psychological Science Volume 1—Number 3*2- http://openpsyc.blogspot.com/2014/02/test-post.html

*3- Daniel Willingham Blog, at: http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog/better-studying-less-studying-wait-whatFrom: https://hdwallpapers.cat/prayer_mongoose_animals_hd-

wallpaper-343399/

*1

*2

*3

Testin

g

Effect

*1

But……..

From: http://www.mygreedypet.com/blogs/blog?page=3

Don’t you need a BUNCH of questions to make a BUNCH of

exams?

Let’s Begin at the End

Goal: Create a large pool of unique questions

Create Repetitive Quizzes

To do this, we need a large pool of unique questions

Creating a large pool of unique questions:

Hard way: type them all by hand into LMS

Easier way: Enter them into Respondus

Creating a large pool of unique questions:

Getting a large pool of unique questions into Respondus

Create them in a Word document first

But you have to be sure they are in “Respondus Format”

Make them first in Excel…

Then copy them to Word

Did you say to write questions in Excel?

Yes, because: 1) It can be automated 2) They will all have perfect format

Automated?

Yes, we will use a function called concatenation!

Where does all this “Full Question” text come from?

It comes from the rest of the spreadsheet

Don’t I have to type everything into the Spreadsheet?

No, everything in this spreadsheet is automatically generated, or cut and pasted

It all starts with the

QUESTION

Make the questions in another spreadsheet or

another tab

Use concatenation to make the question from a list in a column

Then copy the questions and answers into the template

Be sure to use the

paste text only option

Copy the correct answers

column to an empty

column on your

worksheet

Now you automatically generate the distractors…

Highlight all of the answers you just copied and choose: Data tab, remove Duplicates


Type =randbetween(1,10000) in cell next to first answer you want to use as a distractor


Pull this little box down to

copy formula down

column

While the numbers are still

highlighted, hit Ctrl-C (copy) abd then paste into

top cell with Text only (to remove

random function)

1. Now highlight both columns- names and

numbers


2. Choose “Sort and Filter”- Custom Sort

3. And then choose the column to sort

Be sure to uncheck “My data has headers”

1. Now the “wrong answers” are in random order


2. Highlight as many answers as you want

distractors (4 for an A-E MCQ)- Hit Ctrl-C to copy

Note: we don’t choose NSAIDs since we are

making distractors for

questions where NSAID is

correct


3. Then go to the TEMPLATE and paste in the first distractor cell using Right-click and TRANSPOSE

1. Go back to your randomized list of

distractors, and grab 4 more:


2. And paste them into the template below the

other distractors

Highlight the rows of distractors, click the little copy box, and drag down as many rows as you need for all

NSAIDs


Now you need to make distractors for the next category (Opioids)

1. Cut and paste the category you didn’t use last (NSAIDs) and put it at the bottom

of the list… Ctrl-X (Cut)

Ctrl-V (Paste)

2. Then copy distractors to

TEMPLATE as beforeCtrl-C (Copy)

Rt-click, Paste Transposed

Once you have created all distractors, now it is time to make TITLES and Question #s

1. Enter the first two numbers (1 & 2) in the Quest_num column

2. Highlight the two cells continaing the

numbers and then drag the little box down and it will aouto-populate the cells in numerical

order

1. Enter the TITLE in the TITLE column. Since every question must have a unique title, use

concatenation to add the question # to the title

2. Then drag down the little box to copy the formula to all the

other TITLE cells

We are almost done with the spreadsheet portion. We just need to add the GIANT concatenation formula to cell I2 to automatically generate the full

question.

="Title: "&A2&"***"&B2&". "&C2&"***"&"*A. "&D2&"***"&"B. "&E2&"***"&"C. "&F2&"***"&"D. "&G2&"***"&"E. "&H2&"***"&"***"

Finally, pull our little friend the copy box down the column to autofill the Full_Question column with all the

shiny new questions!

While they are still highlighted, press Ctrl-C (copy) and then paste them into a Word doc, using (right-click)Paste-

Keep Text Only

Ctrl-X (Cut)

Right-click, choose Keep text Only

Now we clean it up by removing all those asterisks.

1. Start by clicking REPLACE

2. Type *** into the

box labeled “Find What”

3. Click the MORE

button

1. The Find & Replace box should now

look like this

2. Click the SPECIAL button

3. Click the Manual Line Break Option

4. Click the REPLACE ALL

button

That’s it!!!!

You should now have a perfectly

formatted document that

will go right into Respondus or

Exam Soft

Additional things to keep in mind:

1. You will need an LMS that can randomize both the questions and the

answers in each question

2. You can use this method to make a simple exam- doesn’t have to be

hundreds of questions

Questions?

using spreadsheets to quickly author hundreds of...

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