Analysis of the difficulty and discrimination indices of multiple-choice questions according to cognitive levels in an open and distance learning context

Abstract

This is a descriptive study which intends to determine whether the difficulty and discrimination indices of the multiple-choice questions show differences according to cognitive levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy, which are used in the exams of the courses in a business administration bachelor’s degree program offered through open and distance learning in a public university in Turkey, and to obtain the opinions of the learners on the cognitive levels of the questions. The study population consisted of 905 multiple questions which were asked in the midterm, final, and make-up exams in the 11 major area courses. Quantitative data were gathered from item analysis reports. As well as that, qualitative data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 20 learners. As a result, although some learners stated that they answered applying-level questions more easily, the learners were generally observed to answer the remembering and understanding-level questions more easily than the applyinglevel questions in parallel with the literature. Contrary to the studies in the literature, the remembering and understanding-level questions better distinguished the learners who received high scores from the learners who received low scores compared to the applying-level questions