THE EFFECTS OF ITEM ORGANIZATION AND FEEDBACK DENSITY USING COMPUTER-ASSISTED MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS AS INSTRUCTION

These two studies considered the instructional effects of item organiz ation and also of including distractors with item feedback when multip le-choice questions with feedback delivered by computer are used for i nstruction. In Study 1, a group of 56 third- and fourth-grade students were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. Data were analyzed via a two (organization: random or systematic) x two (feedba ck: full or focused) x two (grade: third or fourth) factorial design. The significant two-way interaction grade by organization (F = 4.45;p =.04) revealed that all of the third grade students, and also the four th-grade students in the systematically organized treatment outperform ed the fourth-grade students in the randomly organized treatment on th e posttest measure. In follow-up Study 2 involving 50 eighth-grade stu dents, the same materials and procedures were used. Data analysis reve aled that the organized treatment produced a substantial learning gain (e.s. = 2.43) compared to the random treatment (e.s. = 1.69). These t wo studies indicate that item organization is an important factor when multiple-choice questions are used as instruction. Also, older studen ts are more able to take advantage of the information provided by orga nization.