Summary


Students develop Multiple Choice Questions as part of a formative assessment process, a percentage of which contribute to their summative assessment. This fosters respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility and provides understanding of the development of their assessment as well as investment in a collaborative partnership approach to their assessment.


Theory


There is a growing literature around co-production of curriculum, emphasising students as partners who provide contributions to the learning and teaching environment. A useful definition is provided by Cook-Sather, Bovill and Felten (2014, p.6-7) “a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualisation, decision making, implementation, investigation or analysis”. The definition highlights the different ways staff and students can work in partnership. Co-production has been found to foster respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility, and also increased enjoyment of learning and teaching for staff and staff members (Lubicz-Nawrocka, 2018; Matthews, 2016; Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017).

  • Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: Overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student–staff partnerships. Higher Education, 71(2), 195-208. doi:10.1007/s10734-015-989
  • Lubicz-Nawrocka, T. (2018). Students as partners in learning and teaching: The benefits of co-creation of the curriculum. International Journal for Students as Partners, 2(1). doi:10.15173/ijsap.v2i1.3207
  • Matthews, K. (2016). Students as partners as the future of student engagement. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1).
  • Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Matthews, K. E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., Swaim, K. (2017). A systematic literature review of students as partners in higher education. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1).

Measurable Benefits


  • Increased enjoyment of the learning and teaching environment.
  • Shared responsibility for teaching and learning.
  • Partnership collaboration between students and staff.

How it Works


When considering whether there is an aspect of a module that could be co-produced with students, it is important to decide level of activity in terms of student participation. For example, students control decision-making and have substantial influence (a negotiated curriculum), students have some choice and influence (student control some areas of choice or prescribed areas), tutors control decision-making informed by student feedback (wide or limited choice from prescribed choices) (Bovill & Bulley, 2011). These can then be applied within the context of a particular module.

Ref: Bovill, C., & Bulley, C. J. (2011). A model of active student participation in curriculum design: Exploring desirability and possibility. In C. E. Rust (Ed.), Improving Student Learning (ISL) 18: Global theories and local practices: Institutional, disciplinary and cultural variations (pp. 176 – 188). Oxford, UK: Oxford Brookes University: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.


Practical Example


On a third year option module in Perspectives in Clinical and Counselling Psychology, students co-produce an aspect of their assessment. They develop multiple choice questions, a percentage of which contribute to their summative assessment. I have a number of practice tests providing formative assessment for students across my module. Following completion of the practice tests, students attend a seminar focused on providing formative feedback around the tests.

Students are asked to bring along any questions they might have from the formative multiple choice practice tests completed and we spend some time discussing these in order to clarify any misunderstandings and provide formative feedback. Following this, students are asked to work in small groups and generate multiple choice questions. Each group should generate one question, which should include a question stem, a key and three distractors. Groups should then present their multiple choice question to the seminar group as a whole, and decide which two questions they would like to put forward from that seminar group for consideration to be included in their final multiple choice assessment (which happens in Week 10). I provide handouts for the session around Writing Multiple Choice Questions and Designing Effective Multiple Choice Questions which are helpful for the students in generating questions.


Additional Information


Handout 1

Handout 2


Supporting Example: Dr Martin Mik

Utilisation of Student Contribution


Encourage students to come up with examples of subject matter discussed and – where possible – keep returning to that example throughout the rest of the module. For example, in my EU module a student brought as an example a case of a South American country and its relationship with the EU. We were able to refer to that example during the rest of the module, illustrating roles played in international relations by various EU institutions.


How It Works


  1. Ask students to give you an example to illustrate they understand what has just been discussed in a class.
  2. In some cases, the example works really well for other aspects of the module. So as you cover another element, you can refer back to the original example and either illustrate how the new content relates to it, or actually invite students to use that example and explain the new content that way.
  3. If you can refer to the example using the name of a specific student who brought it up in the first instance, in makes them more engaged. It also shows you know who your students are and what contributions they make.
  4. Consistent use of a specific example throughout the module also allows students to focus on it more and perhaps follow the news more closely (where relevant).

Individual Perspective


This is really easy. You need to keep an eye on the news to make sure you know what is going on and have a think how things might be linked to your content, especially if an example lend itself well for re-use later on in the module.

You need to make sure you offer an opportunity to others to come up with different examples later on, so that this is not closed after just one example is presented. Sometimes you can use two (or more) examples brought by different students to illustrate differences in subject matter. This helps with making sure students understand all contributions are valuable.