Instructional designers who have received a batch of questions from a subject matter expert (SME), undoubtedly had a fair number of True/False questions authored. Or perhaps, you caught yourself committing this crime.
Writing is a process, not a product. The first attempt at writing questions is most likely, driven towards an idea of challenging a learning objective and not of the desired quality required for the final version, but it’s a start. On your first editorial pass, massaged those True/False questions into a practical evaluation.
I ask beginner test writers to start simple using the guidelines I mention in Advice for SMEs Writing Multiple Choice Questions. Though not extensive, those guidelines help the novice tremendously without overwhelming them with all the rules and guidelines around writing sound questions. I’ll demonstrate how I took a True/False style question and made it more interactive. Here is the original question.
True or False: Personal protective equipment is defined as any item that can be used to prevent a worker from being exposed to a hazard including such things as gas detectors, safety signs, trench boxes, and traffic cones.
This question attempts to assess whether or not an individual can identify personal protective equipment from other safety equipment types. I took an interactive, visual approach to get the learner motivated.
The question was rewritten as:
Select the personal protective equipment used to prevent a worker from being exposed to a hazard.
In this scenario, I did not indicate how many items to choose because I wanted the learner to distinguish, visually, the equipment worn by an employee from other safety items.
Next, I identified a list of equipment, assembled a series of images, and organized those on a slide. I designed the question to enable the learner to select all personal protective equipment shown on the screen. Below are the correct answers and distractors with a screenshot of the slide.
As you can see, this is a far cry from the original True/False style. This approach took me about an hour to develop (graphics and Storyline development), but the results provided the learner with actual, on-the-job equipment.
When editing questions, rework those True/False questions—and others—to focus on what objective the question is challenging. Then you can present that question in a higher quality format with challenging responses.