Brian Couch, School of Biological Sciences, will present a seminar titled “Knowing what students know: How question formats differ in their abilities to reveal student thinking.” Instructors use assessment ubiquitously throughout undergraduate STEM courses to gauge student understanding of important concepts. The utility of an assessment can be partly judged by the degree to which it can detect the presence of correct and incorrect understandings. We will discuss a series of within-subjects controlled experiments to determine how student responses differ for questions posed in multiple-choice, multiple-true-false, or free-response formats as well as implications of this research for instructional practice.

A simultaneous teleconference of this seminar will be available in 202 Hardin Hall on East Campus. Please contact Jenny.Dauer@unl.edu at least one day in advance of the seminar if you wish to participate in the teleconference. Further information on this seminar series can be obtained at: www.unl.edu/dber.