Sunyani Technical University (STU) has organised a two-day workshop on assessment and test item development to strengthen lecturers’ capacity in designing effective assessment tools in higher education.
The workshop, themed “Understanding and Practising Multiple-Choice Assessment in Higher Education,” brought together lecturers to deepen their understanding of assessment practices and improve the quality of test items used in teaching and learning.
Opening the workshop, the Vice-Chancellor, Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, urged participants to actively engage in the sessions to ensure meaningful outcomes that would enhance teaching and assessment practices at the university.
The workshop was facilitated by Dotles Education Services, represented by Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa and Prof. Young Kafui Abel Etsey of the University of Cape Coast.
Leading the first day of the workshop, Prof. Etsey emphasised that teachers’ confidence significantly influences their teaching methods and the way they assess students. He explained that assessment in higher education should primarily focus on promoting student learning rather than merely assigning grades.
He outlined several assessment methods used in higher education, including unseen written examinations, quizzes, observation, and practical work. According to him, assessment serves multiple purposes such as certifying students for employment, assigning grades, monitoring progress, and evaluating understanding.
Prof. Etsey further noted that effective assessment provides feedback, identifies students’ learning difficulties, and enables lecturers to provide appropriate support. He encouraged lecturers to engage students openly in order to understand their challenges and help them set academic goals that can improve their performance.
He also discussed key principles of effective assessment, stressing that assessments must align with learning objectives, provide meaningful feedback, remain transparent, and serve as a tool to support learning rather than an end in itself. He added that allowing students access to their marked scripts promotes fairness and accountability, while using multiple assessment methods within a course ensures equity.
Drawing on findings from a survey of master’s students, Prof. Etsey cautioned lecturers against overemphasising memorisation when constructing test items, noting that analytical questions often reveal deeper student understanding.
He also introduced participants to the development of a Table of Specifications, also known as a test blueprint, which helps ensure that assessments reflect intended learning outcomes. The process involves identifying course topics, specifying instructional behaviours using Bloom’s Taxonomy, allocating items across content areas and objectives, and balancing the relationship between content and cognitive levels. According to him, such blueprints enhance fairness, prevent duplication of items, and help identify learning gaps.
The second day of the workshop focused on the practical construction of effective multiple-choice test items. Prof. Etsey reminded participants that assessment should support learning and should not be used to punish students.
He advised lecturers to ensure that test items are clear, well-defined, grammatically correct, and free from spelling or typing errors. He cautioned against excessive wording that could confuse learners and recommended separating different test formats into sections when used in the same examination.
Prof. Etsey encouraged lecturers to develop original test items rather than relying heavily on questions generated online or copied directly from textbooks. He explained that the renewed use of multiple-choice tests is driven by factors such as increasing student enrollment, the need for objective scoring, quicker release of results, and wider coverage of course content.
While highlighting advantages such as ease of scoring and broad content coverage, he also noted that multiple-choice questions can be time-consuming to construct, susceptible to guessing, and often require strong reading ability from students.
He further outlined principles for constructing effective multiple-choice items, including ensuring that distractors are plausible, keeping options within the same content category and grammatical structure, and presenting the stem and options on the same page.
During the open forum, participants discussed issues such as early submission of examination questions for moderation and strategies for increasing class participation. Prof. Etsey suggested reviewing early-submitted questions closer to the examination period and encouraged lecturers to use interactive methods such as group presentations to stimulate classroom engagement.
A representative from Think Data Service also demonstrated digital tools for recording and managing assessment scores, explaining that the company can customise multiple-choice test formats for different institutions.
The workshop also featured practical exercises where participants applied the principles discussed in developing assessment items.
In his closing remarks, the Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Evans Zoya Kpamma, emphasised the importance of the test blueprint matrix and encouraged lecturers to maintain positive relationships with their students to support effective learning.