Examining Difficulty and Discrimination Indices of Multiple Choice Questions according to Item Types in Distance Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether difficulty and discrimination indices of multiple choice questions differ according to item types in Turkey in higher education in a distance education setting and to identify the opinions of students on item types. In this mixed study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data were collected from Item Analysis reports including 905 items whereas qualitative data were collected from 20 students via semi-structured interviews to reveal the opinions of students on difficulty levels of questions. It was identified that items were in 4 types which were positive, negative, problem-based and K-Type questions. As a result, there is a significant difference between the difficulty indices of positive questions and problem-based questions as well as negative questions and problem-based questions. On the other hand, no significant difference was found between the discrimination indices. In addition, it was found that opinions of students on the difficulty levels of questions showed variety.