Item Banking

Neil Wilkinson

Item Banking

• Test development• Item banking• What data is stored• Why use item banking• Item bank features• Keys to successful item banks

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Test Development

Test Development

Analyse Job

Write

Review

Build Exam

Set Standard

Administer

Analyse Stats

Item Banking

Item

Content

Author

Learning Outcome

Review Process

Test

Statistics History

Status Other Data

References

Scoring+ Management + Searching

+Reporting +Auditing=

Item Bank

Item banking

Item banking

Item banking is the process of storing all of your items and related data

Item bank

An item bank could be a database, a word document, an excel document, anything that ties together content with related data.

What data

• The question you are asking

• Distractors

• Graphics

• Other Material (audio/video/pdf/graphics)

Content

• The correct answer or key

• Sample responses

• Rationale

• Alternative scoring

Scoring

• The learning outcome/syllabus/objectives are generally stored in a tree structure

• Every item might have one or more classification

• Each author might write to a particular section

• Used for gap analysis

Learning Outcome

• It is often useful to store a reference to something that proves the item correct

• It could be a book, journal webpage or other

• This gives you the ability to check the quality and validity of the item

Reference

• Items often have meta-data

• This should be configurable and searchable

• Often a mix of response types (free-text, drop down lists, combo boxes)

• Eg Blooms Taxonomy, item status

Other Data

• Items may have a review process

• Each step might have outcomes

• Items might need to be tracked through the process

• Example: ‘how many items are currently at 1st Editorial Review?’

Review Process

• Items may have statistics generated by a measurement expert

• Statistics could have come from many exam sittings

• Often used in test construction

• Used to review author and item performance

Statistics

• Items will be added to a test

• The test will be exported for delivery in some environment

• The test could be in many formats, including Word/QTI/XML

Test Build

• Who reviewed an item?

• What was changed?

• What tests has it been delivered in?

• How did it perform?

History

Why?

Why Item Bank

Increased reliability. Good items can be reused, bad items can be retired.

Why Item Bank

Increased consistency. Review steps allow all items to go through the same review process.

Why Item Bank

To allow reporting on program status

Why Item Bank

Increased speed of creating tests

Why Item Bank

Customised workflow for your items.

Why Item Bank

Ability to build an audit trail for your items.

Why Item Bank

Increased security of items.

Item bank features

Item Bank Features

• Item authoring• Remote item authoring• Support of multiple item types

• Item banking• Search capabilities• Import/export capabilities• Batch editing capabilities

Item Bank Features

• Test construction• Test assembly• Export features

• Ancillary features• Security and access • Workflow management• Project tracking

Key features

Key features of successful Item Banks

• Thoughtful creation of meta-data• Item bank manager• Solid processes• Consistency• Training• Migration• Stakeholder buy in

Thank you!