Item Development and Analysis I

Course Description: 

This course provides a comprehensive exploration of assessment design and item development. Learners will examine the structure and essential components of high-quality exam items and compare multiple assessment formats appropriate for measuring clinical knowledge, reasoning, and professional competencies. Through guided analysis and applied practice, participants will evaluate the effectiveness of assessment items by reviewing stem clarity, distractor function, and alignment with intended learning constructs. The course also introduces foundational psychometric concepts, enabling learners to interpret item difficulty and discrimination indices to inform assessment quality and exam revisions. By the end of the course, learners will develop and refine their own multiple-choice items—including scenario-based and video-based questions—using evidence-supported best practices.

• Format: Asynchronous, on-demand
• Cost: Academy of Education Members $30, Non-members $75
• Earn CEU: .3 (3 contact hours)

Intended Audience:
New physical therapy faculty

Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the Educational Session, attendees will be able to:

1. Utilize best practices when developing multiple choice questions.

2. Describe the structure and key components of exam items modeled after the National Physical Therapy Licensure Examination (NPTE).

3. Develop multiple-choice items, including scenario-based and video-based questions, using evidence-based best practices.

4. Discuss a range of assessment formats beyond multiple-choice items that are appropriate for evaluating DPT students.

5. Utilize Bloom’s taxonomy is the development of items, especially for higher levels of reasoning.

6. Create assessment items that elicit all five types of critical reasoning: analysis, inductive, deductive, inferential, and evaluative reasoning.

7. Analyze the design of assessment items—including stem quality, distractor effectiveness, and alignment with intended learning constructs.

8. Analyze exam performance data using item difficulty, item discrimination indices, and internal consistency to evaluate item and assessment quality.9. Discuss the utilization of exam blueprints and exam wrappers.