A, B, C or D? Strategies for Multiple Choice Assessments

Originally published in February 2025

Do you use multiple choice questions to assess your students?

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) remain an indispensable tool for many instructors and a common assessment method in undergraduate education. This is especially true for those teaching large, first-year introductory courses where grading written responses or alternative assessments can be more challenging. MCQs are relatively easy to grade with the use of technology, such as MyLS and iClickers, and allow for the timely posting of grades.

Student benefits include enhanced retention, opportunities for peer-based learning, and boosted confidence when used as self-assessment practice questions (Butler, 2018; Rempel et.al. 2023; Simkin & Kuechler, 2005; Weimer, 2018). As Laurier Teaching Fellow Steve MacNeil notes in this week’s Faculty Assessment Spotlight below, “multiple choice testing is not going away,” and shares how MCQs can be used both as an effective assessment strategy and a tool to promote student engagement.

Whether you are exploring how best to utilize multiple choice questions in your pedagogical practice or are looking for new ways to engage students with multiple choice testing, this week’s TEI newsletter provides strategies on effective multiple-choice approaches.

A, B, C, D, or E (all of the above): How to Use Multiple-Choice Assessments

Starting with your course context, teaching approach, and course learning outcomes, which of the following strategies for incorporating multiple choice assessments will best support your teaching as well as student learning?

A: Adopt strategically throughout the term.

MCQs can be designed for different assessment purposes.

When used as a diagnostic tool at the start of term or unit to assess prior knowledge, MCQs can be a fun and no-stakes way to engage with your students as they are not formally assessed.
When used as formative assessments to build knowledge throughout the term, MCQs can provide students with a check-in option such as with iClicker or MyLS quizzes.
As summative assessments to test the culmination of student learning, MCQs offer specific assessments of knowledge and understanding at key points in the term (i.e. mid-term and end-of-term exams).

B: Build knowledge with developmental approaches

Asynchronously: with the quizzes course tool on MyLS, students can identify their learning gaps and retry through repeat quiz attempts. Research shows that students tend to remember the answer they chose in an MC test even if it was incorrect, so giving students opportunities to answer-until-correct helps build and reinforce their understanding of course content (DiBattista, 2005; Wood et. al., 2022; Williams et. al., 2021).
Synchronously: MCQs can be designed with group components to promote peer learning. In two-stage collaborative testing, for example, students first complete the test on their own and then discuss in groups to answer the same or similar questions together.

C: Connect cognitive skills with mastery of subject matter

Develop questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy for higher-order thinking skills and abilities, which include Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001). Students can be asked to evaluate a case study or scenario, interpret factual information, apply core concepts or theories, or analyze data.
Depending on your course context and teaching approach, students can be asked to submit their rough work, such as graphs, calculations, or formulas, alongside their answers to the MCQs, which can be graded or used to provide part marks.
Demonstrating mastery via MCQ can also support students with practice for professional certification or entrance exams in certain fields (Scully, 2017).

D: Design and deliver using available technological tools

The quizzes course tool on MyLS can be used to create a question bank where the order of questions and their answers can be randomized for each student and to provide immediate results that can be automatically tied to the MyLS gradebook.
iClicker can be used to present questions for live, synchronous use with results available for sharing with students in real-time, allowing for instant review and/or in-depth analysis with students as required.
Similar to iClickers, Zoom’s polling feature can be used to support virtual sessions by creating polls or questions either in advance or in real-time. Zoom features may best be used as check-ins with low or no-stakes formative assessments as they are not integrated into the grade book.
Panopto has a feature for short, targeted MCQs that can be built into an instructor’s course recordings.

E: All of the above.*

*The Right Answer?

Each of the above strategies points to different ways that MC approaches can be incorporated into your pedagogical practice. And while research suggests that “All of the Above” is not the best answer to use on MCQs (Dell & DeVries, 2024), it may be the right option for you as you explore the why, when, where, and how of multiple choice assessments. Watch Steve MacNeil’s faculty spotlight below for more innovative strategies for multiple choice testing!

Watch: Multiple Choice Testing Faculty Spotlight featuring Steve MacNeil

Laurier Teaching Fellow Steve MacNeil from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry shares innovative research-informed approaches to multiple choice testing that increase student engagement and support the application of higher-order learning. Steve discusses two creative approaches to multiple choice testing, IFAT and Personal Point Allocation, that give students both immediate feedback on their answers as well as opportunities to earn partial marks. With research from both his own courses and published studies, Steve shares test performance and feedback about students’ perceptions of these testing approaches and the importance of desirable difficulty in the learning process. Watch the Faculty Spotlight >>

Have you already adopted an effective MCQs approach and are looking to broaden your range of assessment options? Instructors can develop dynamic assessment practices by looking to additional TEI resources on assessment examples or incorporating authentic assessments to expand options for students to demonstrate learning in their courses.