This collaborative project between the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and Winona State University is gathering evidence on the role timing and type of feedback has on student learning when multiple choice exams are used in large-enrollment general chemistry and organic chemistry lecture courses. This systematic chemical education research project is using both traditional Scantron and Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique forms (also known as "Answer Until Correct" in which answer spaces are covered with a coating that is scratched off like a lottery ticket). The variables being investigated include immediate versus delayed feedback, corrective versus non-corrective feedback, test retaking, deliberate increases in cognitive complexity demands, and student confidence in their answers. The results are providing evidence about student cognitive and metacognitive growth and how different sub-populations vary within the testing regimes. Volunteer student populations from one doctoral institution, three comprehensive institutions, and two community colleges (Anoka-Ramsey Community College and South Suburban College) are participating. The intellectual merit of this project includes valid and reliable General Chemistry 1 and Organic Chemistry 1 multiple-choice tests that encompass a spectrum of thinking skills, including higher order cognitive skills. In addition, the project is documenting how multiple choice exams are used both for real-time student learning as well as assessing a student's knowledge. The broader impacts of this project are the knowledge that is being created about how the structure of multiple choice questions, coupled with type and timing of feedback, influences student learning for the whole, as well as for different sub-groups. Given the wide-spread use of multiple-choice exams, this project also is establishing best practices for the construction of online practice and homework problems such that they now can now be formulated better to maximize student learning.
