Effects of writing-related contingencies on both quality of writing and multiple-choice exam performance in large college courses.

Abstract

Most undergraduates likely take some courses that use multiple-choice exams as a major source of course credit. Instructors may be especially inclined to use multiple-choice exams in large courses because of ease and efficiency of grading (Hautau et al., 2006b). Nonetheless, many students report difficulty in taking multiple-choice exams, claiming that they could do better on essay exams. Consequently, discovering how to heighten student performance on multiple-choice exams is an important issue at the college level (Wallace & Williams, 2003). One possibility for improving multiple-choice exam scores may be the use of daily writing activities related to concepts included on the multiple-choice exams. Past research demonstrates that brief essay quizzes may improve performance on a variety of exam formats (e.g., short answer, essay, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice). Padilla-Walker (2006) found that brief, extra-credit daily quizzes on assigned reading material predicted performance on major exams (short-answer and essay) better than did gender, self-reported college GPA, and self-reported ACT scores. Daniel and Broida (2004) also reported that completing in-class quizzes over course concepts boosted performance on course exams (multiple-choice and short answer). Narloch, Garbin, and Turnage (2006) showed that prelecture quizzes, compared to no quizzes, produced better performance on both multiple-choice and essay exam items. Additionally, Leeming (2002) found that participating in daily 1015 min writing activities on course concepts significantly improved performance on a comprehensive final exam that included short essay, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice questions. Similarly, Turner et al. (2006) demonstrated that students required to complete a daily in-class writing activity performed better on the course's multiple-choice exams than students without daily writing. Although some research supports using daily essay quizzes to boost major exam performance, maximizing the impact of these quizzes is not without logistical challenges. For example, grading the quizzes could be labor intensive for the instructor. The writing activities may only consume a small percentage of class time, but the time required to grade and record the scores may detract from instructor time needed to organize and prepare for class. Leeming's (2002) daily quizzes required about 10 to 20% of class time and an hour of instructor grading time each day. Hautau et al. (2006a) and Turner et al. (2006) reduced instructor time for grading quizzes by grading quizzes only on randomly selected days rather than on all days. The quizzes took 6 to 7% of total class time and required about 1 min per student for instructor grading. Given that students in these studies did not know what day's quizzes would be randomly selected for grading, the researchers expected the quizzes to have much the same impact on student performance as would daily grading and crediting of quizzes. However, the results proved mixed regarding this expectation, creating additional questions as to how best to maximize student performance on writing quizzes and multiple-choice exams without requiring an inordinate amount of instructor time. Recent attempts to clarify the conditions under which daily writing could efficiently promote writing and exam scores have been reported by Hautau et al. (2006a; 2006b). Hautau et al. (2006a) required students to analyze in writing pairs of concepts that could be found within instructor notes available to students. The class website identified two to five pairs of concepts each day that students could be asked to address on the next quiz. At the following class period, the instructor randomly selected one of those pairs and instructed students to identify the concepts' commonalities, differences, and the effect of one on the other. When the final writing activity had been completed for each unit, a student randomly chose one day's writing activities to count for course credit. …