Test Item Writing to Foster Critical Thinking for Longwood University

Course overview

The purpose of this course is to help faculty improve their test-writing skills to ensure that students’ use of clinical judgment is that of a novice nurse level at the time of graduation. Audience: Nurse faculty interested in improving their skill in writing test items that encourage critical thinking to answer. Learning Objectives Upon completion of the workshop, the learner will be able to: 1. Apply best practice principles of testing in order to evaluate the students’ ability to think critically and use appropriate clinical judgment for safe and effective patient care. 2. Use relevant standards, including the NCLEX Test Blue Print, to evaluate student performance and the effectiveness of the curriculum. 3. Use best practices to develop and evaluate test questions to enhance their critical thinking properties. 4. Institute policies and best-practices necessary to accurately evaluate student performance in written examinations 5. Use statistical analysis and test blueprinting to evaluate individual test items and the examination as a whole. 6. Edit test items to improve critical thinking properties.