Coming Up with Questions -

Questions are the backbone for a question bank, not like that really needed to be said. That is like saying you need money if you are going to start a bank. These two statements make sense, but the task at hand is trying to find and or build enough questions so that you have a viable question bank. Like anything else there has to be a shortcut or a trick or two that one can use to cut down on the grind involved in coming up with questions. And figuring out some of those tricks it the key to not getting burned out trying to come up with questions.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in a previous post I mentioned spaced reputation and how utilizing spaced repetition is beneficial for teaching some courses. This repetition means that as instructors we keep asking the same questions over and over again through the duration of the course so that the material being covered is retained by the student. My theory is to teach welding like it is a language so spaced reputation is the key and have a number of questions, many of them similar and possibly overlapping in subject content is the key to helping the students learn the material.

I mentioned before that two of my favorite sources for questions are Nonresident Training Courses on welding, Steelworker, Volume 1 NAVEDTRA 14250 and NAVEDTRA 14119 which is for Hull Technicians. Both of these courses have questions at the end of the chapters and all the material is in the public domain which means that it is not copyrighted material - and that we can go berserk and copy and paste to our hearts content.

I am going to do a couple of examples on how to turn a couple of questions into half a dozen question which will help cut down on the work you need to perform while constructing your question bank. 

Let's grab question #10 from Chapter #8 SMAW of NAVEDTRA 14250 - The Steelworker course.

10. An electrode that has a minimum tensile strength of 80,000 psi for use in all positions for low alloy has what designation?

A. E11810
B. E8024
*C. E8018-C3
D. E7018

Modified question #10:

10M. An electrode that has a minimum tensile strength of 70,000 psi for use in all positions for low alloy has what designation?

A. E11810
B. E8024
C. E8018-C3
*D. E7018

 Same set of answers but just change 80,000 psi to 70,000 psi. 

Another example would be to 

Modified question #10 - second time:

10M. An electrode that has a minimum tensile strength of 80,000 psi for use in the flat position for low alloy has what designation?

A. E11810
*B. E8024
C. E8018-C3
D. E7018

 Same set of answers but just change all positions to the flat position. If we grab question #11 and do some similar modifications. 

11. A welding electrode that has an AWS classification of E-7024 should be used for a metal-arc welding job in what position(s)?

A. Horizontal position only
*B. Flat position only
C. Horizontal and flat positions
D. Vertical and overhead. 

Modified question #11 :

11. A welding electrode that has an AWS classification of E-7018 can be used for a metal-arc welding job in what position(s)?

*A. All positions
B. Flat position only
C. Horizontal and flat positions
D. Vertical and overhead. 

So you can see that if we start with a question that has a number of answers that could be correct for other questions. We can do minor modifications to both the questions and answers to help us turn one or two questions into half a dozen questions. 

This is one of my main tricks or methods for building up a collection of questions without doing a lot of grunt work or trying to come up with new questions. Find a few questions and copy and paste and then modify them and add them to your question bank.

Feedback

One of the main tools I use in teaching welding is the feedback portion of the questions on the learning management system. Feedback is crucial for online learning as feedback allows the learner to assess their progress and more importantly increases the students knowledge retention. My focus is on knowledge retention - almost like tricking the students into reading the material. 

When you are building questions you can add feedback to any quiz or test question that you have created. Students can then view the feedback for those questions when they view their results after submitting the test or quiz. In addition to general feedback, students will see all feedback comments relevant to their answer choices if you include feedback that is specific to those answers.

Here is a question on welding defects - that I have stashed away on Schoology - the Learning Management System for the school district where I work.

Below is an example of feedback that I added to give the question some depth and context. It also helps to increases the students knowledge retention by getting them to read a paragraph about a welding defect.


I generally don't use question specific feedback - I mainly use the same feedback for both the correct answer and the incorrect answer. Once again getting the student to read a small amount of material each and every time they answer a question adds up in the long run and helps the student with knowledge retention.



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