1.

Introduction

We have recently developed a new student assessment tool, called an integrated testlet [1,2], which has been successfully delivered to thousands of students at several educational institutions across Canada, both through paper-based and online means. An integrated testlet assesses students’ understanding of complex knowledge through a set of scaffolded multiple-choice questions, each adopting an answer-until-correct format. Compared to typical multiple-choice-based tests that ask questions (called items) that are wholly independent of each other, an integrated testlet purposefully uses an answer-until-correct format to allow items to then become interdependent so they can build on one another. This scaffolding allows for the assessment and learning of deeper and more interconnected aspects of a course. Testing such interconnectivity of knowledge is particularly useful within STEM disciplines, but is especially beneficial in cumulative and strongly-interdisciplinary fields in physical science such as optics and photonics.

Since their inception, originally targeted to university students during tests and examinations using paper-based question sheets and scratchable immediate-feedback answer cards, the potential scope of integrated testlets has broadened enormously. Additional students who can benefit from this tool include those enrolled in technical courses, those studying remotely, and also those in grades 9-12. The method of delivery has broadened to include textbook delivery to aid with student self-study, and online delivery with its benefits of automatic scoring, self-pacing, and rapid access to test psychometrics. The educational goals have been augmented to include formative learning during testlet deployment, and enhanced student engagement with increased focus and concentration, together with group discussion, learning, and assessment. Integrated testlets have been delivered before class, in class, and at summative points throughout the semester. They facilitate a more conversational and dialogue-based aspect to education and to training [3], and, lastly, by forcing deliberate and mindful composition practices among instructors, integrated testlets enhance their pedagogical skills and acumen.

Within this ETOP presentation we shall expand on the points listed below. In particular we shall convey and substantiate the educational and training benefits from adopting integrated testlets, with concrete examples taken from optics and photonics at both introductory and upper-year undergraduate levels. We will share good practices that can aid instructors and trainers when composing integrated testlets, and when deploying them within various settings. Specific examples from optics and photonics will be provided, with a description of how these have been, or are being, deployed through paper-based, textbook-based, and online delivery.

2.

Integrated testlets; the why

Some key advantages of integrated testlets include their ability to:

These advantages apply to integrated testlets in general, whether their delivery be paper-based, textbook-based, or through online means. Additional advantages to textbook deployment, as is currently being prepared by one of us (RS), for the new 4th-edition of the classic Pedrotti text [4], include that:

Additionally, when courses recently moved to remote delivery, we demonstrated that online deployment of integrated testlets provides the following extra benefits for students and for instructors:

3.

Integrated testlets; the how

We have over the past few years accrued extensive experience from constructing more than 100 different integrated testlets, in topics from classical mechanics and biophysics to optics and photonics. In this presentation we shall focus on a particular integrated testlet, taken from an upper-year modern optics course, to convey key aspects of integrated testlet construction, optimization and deployment. This particular example assesses student understanding of coherence, and in particular of the concepts of transverse coherence length, spatial coherence width, and of volume of coherence.