The switch to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic presented many new challenges, and both students and instructors had concerns about academic integrity in the online environment. Some instructors were hesitant to require remote proctoring software due to technology requirements and privacy concerns for students. Open-book exams or preventing back-tracking between questions were also unacceptable solutions for many instructors. The use of question pools as a strategy to promote academic integrity and prevent cheating exposed many STEM students across the globe to this practice. Question pools allow instructors to leverage their learning management system (LMS) to administer a distinct exam to each student consisting of a question from each pool as well as any non-pooled questions. In this use a question pool contains a set of questions designed to address the same learning objective or concept. However, there is little research on the design of effective question pools, and there are no studies analyzing pool types for variation in students’ performance. This work set out to assess whether question pools are fair. When designing question pools, it is important to recognize factors that affect question analogy for equity. Instructors from several STEM courses, including general chemistry, introductory physics, and upper-level physiology, categorized different types of question pools. In this study we propose common categories of question types, share the findings for comparing analogous questions using student outcome data, and suggest implications for others when designing question pools.

When is the same not the same? Issues of question equivalence in online exam pools

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.