What inspired or motivated you to use this tool/resource?
This assessment was pre-existing when I joined the module, so I just developed it and expanded it further to allow students to have more attempts at a mock version of the exam without compromising the unseen nature of the final exam. This module sees students form all branches or Nursing, Midwifery and radiography learn side by side on a range of introductory topics to healthcare practice.
What was your aim in using this tool/resource?
The students have 50 multiple choice questions on a range of anatomy and physiology lectures common to many health courses. While they do need to pass this exam, the content of the anatomy and physiology lectures goes beyond this as it underpins clinical knowledge and their clinical practice.
When I first took over I noticed not all lectures were represented by questions in the question bank. There was also a single question bank from which 50 questions would be randomly selected by the system to display to students. While this created different exams for the students at each sitting and between students, there was a chance that some lectures would be missed from the exam due to the random selection of questions. This was heightened by the fact some lectures had more questions in the bank than others. This could then result in a student getting the majority of their exam on just 1 or 2 lectures which could be great if they were confident with it, or terrible if it was a system they were less confident with.
My plan was to create multiple question banks, one for each lecture topic. I could then ensure each topic would be represented in the exam and ensure each lecture had questions represented in the exam. This would hopefully ensure a fairer exam between students and also encourage students to revise from all lectures as if they knew from higher years some topics never came up in the exam they may decide to not review these which would affect their overall knowledge which is important for clinical practice.
What did you use the tool/resource for?
I utilised the create question banks tool in blackboard to create a bank of multiple-choice questions for each lecture topic. These banks can then easily be copied between modules, so you do not have to create them each time the module (or its March cohort) runs.
Once the bilingual question banks are created, using the create test function in blackboard you can add these banks to the test. All questions in the bank are added, but the system can then be told how many questions from that bank to present to a student. The question order and the answer order can also be randomised so that students cannot just memorise the position of the correct answer when completing mock exams which promotes them to understand the knowledge rather than just memorise it. This is a deeper pedagogical approach and means the information will be stored in more long-term memory. As the information is not just for passing this exam, but to underpin their clinical practice, this deeper understanding of concepts is key to their long-term success in their course. You keep adding question banks to the test, selecting the number of questions to display until the required 50 questions are achieved, and all lectures are included. My decision around the split between sessions was in part due to the number of questions available in each bank, which was often linked to the length and complexity of the system, but also on the importance of that system to overall health and wellbeing in the people they will care for in their careers.
Additional tools once the exam has been created include adding a formative note for the mock exams, increasing the number of attempts to 3 for the mock exams, adding a time limit with automatic submission for all exams in keeping with the validated module assessment and adding an access code to the final exam so that students can only access it when provided this code in the exam room. This is especially important in our September cohort where we have multiple sittings as it ensures students can only access the morning or the afternoon exam as timetabled. A front page can also be added to the exam with bilingual instructions for the exam, clarifying that there is only 1 correct answer from the available 4 presented.
How did the tool/resource impact your teaching?
By using a computerised exam with multiple-choice questions, we were able to utilise automatic marking of the exam. This reduces our workload as no lecturer is required to mark the submissions and it also allows students to have their mark immediately following submission. This reduces the anxiety in our students wondering if they have passed or not which is important in this module as they still have another assessment to work on for submission the following week.
By increasing the question bank available and being able to facilitate 3 rather than just 1 mock exam we have also seen a decrease in student anxiety over the final exam as they feel more prepared for it and we have seen improved pass rates and scores which will hopefully translate to improved anatomical and physiological knowledge in their clinical practice.
As students are made aware at the start of the course that all lectures in their anatomy and physiology set will be represented in the final exam, we also see improved engagement with some sessions that they previously engaged poorly with. This lack of engagement may have been due to knowledge that previously they would not get quested on them, or possibly due to lack of understanding why it was important. Students know understand that all sessions are important for the final exam, but our teaching in the sessions has been strengthened to explain why the knowledge is also important for their long-term clinical practice. This relevance for many helps them to understand the information being presented and increases in engagement with understanding content.
How well did the tool/resource perform, would you recommend it?
This resource works well for this type of assessment and I will continue to utilise it. I have also utilised it in a smaller form to create revision quizzes in other modules to test student’s understanding following other sessions. Some are similar multiple-choice questions for anatomy and physiology sessions, while others are longer, structures questions that following submission display to students an example of a correct answer for them to compare their work to, to test their own understanding without module tutors having to formally mark formative assessments.
How well was the tool/resource received by students?
Students are initially anxious around what to expect, but once they have used it once they find it an easy-to-use system and are grateful they can receive their results immediately on submission.
Share a ‘Top Tip’ for a colleague new to the tool/resource
For sessions such as anatomy and physiology where the knowledge is long standing, even more complex information, the use of generative AI can help create questions rapidly and if I were to expand the question banks further I would utilise this more in the future. Many of my smaller quizzes for students have utilised this feature and it significantly cuts down on the workload of generating questions as you only need to review the suitability and the accuracy of questions generated.
While I have focused on multiple-choice questions there are a range of question types available to suit a range of topics/pedagogy styles so explore the settings. You can even create tests with mixed question formats to create tests designed for your assessments.
How would I summarise the experience in 3 words?
Student-friendly, effective assessment
Recommended reading:
Blackboard Tests, Pools and Surveys:
Blackboard Question Pools:
Blackboard Question Banks:
Contact for more information:
Becky Moseley: b.moseley@bangor.ac.uk
Teaching & Learning Support Team: helpdesk@bangor.ac.uk