THE

MCGRAWHILL COMPANIES

Developing Effective
Probes
Authoring Guide

Lastupdated
3/7/2012

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Table of Contents
DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE PROBES .................................................................................................................... 3
RULE # 1: START WITH THE LEARNING OBJECTIVE .................................................................................. 3
RULE #2 AVOID AMBIGUITY ................................................................................................................................ 5
RULE #3: AVOID NEGATIVE PROBES ................................................................................................................ 7
RULE #4: THE CORRECT RESPONSE SHOULD COMPLETE THE QUESTION/STATEMENT (AS
OPPOSED TO BEGINNING IT) ............................................................................................................................... 8
RULE # 5: AVOID REDUNDANT INFORMATION.............................................................................................. 9
RULE #6: CREATE PLAUSIBLE DISTRACTORS ............................................................................................. 10
RULE #7: KEEP GRAMMAR CONSISTENT ...................................................................................................... 11
RULE # 8: AVOID UNNECESSARY OR IRRELEVANT INFORMATION ..................................................... 12
RULE #9: MAKE ANSWER CHOICES HOMOGENOUS .................................................................................. 13
RULE #10: MINIMIZE USE OF WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING PHRASES ........................................ 15

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Developing Effective Probes

Most probes can be effectively written by keeping in mind a few general principles.

Rule # 1: Start with the Learning Objective

The learning objective is your roadmap to developing probes. LearnSmart probes are designed to assess
whether students have been able to achieve specific learning objectives. So, when designing a probe its
important to start with the learning objective.
Poor Probe Design:
This probes options identify several characteristics of carbohydrates, but proteins arent even
mentioned.

This probe would be better suited for the following learning objective:

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Improved Probe
Heres an example of an improved probe. Notice that the new probe is very specific in differentiating
between carbohydrates and proteins. This probe is better designed to assess the learning objective.

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Rule #2 Avoid Ambiguity

This rule is especially important when designing the question stem. When students finish reading the
question stem, they should know exactly what they are expected to answer.
Poor Probe Design:
In this example, the question stem is ambiguous. Students may not understand the type of information
being assessed.

Improved Probe Design:

This question stem is clear, direct, and avoids ambiguity.

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Youll want to be especially clear when creating fill-in-the-blank probes.

Poor Probe Design:
In this example, the phrase biggest state is ambiguous. Is the question asking for the biggest state in the
United States? Is the probe asking for the state with the greatest area? Or is it asking for the state with the
greatest population?

Improved Probe Design:

In the improved probe, the statement is much more specific.

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Rule #3: Avoid Negative Probes

A negative probe is a probe that asks the student to identify the item that is incorrect. Most researchers
suggest that stems containing negatives are not effective tools for measuring achievement. Thus you
should avoid probes that contain negative words such as NOT or EXCEPT.
Poor Probe Design:

Improved Probe Design:

Heres a better example of the probe, where the question is asked in the affirmative.

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Rule #4: The Correct Response Should Complete the

Question/Statement (as Opposed to Beginning It)
Poor Probe Design:
In this example the blank is positioned at the beginning of the sentence. This should be avoided as much
as possible. Asking for a response before the student understands the question can cause confusion.
These types of questions might also require more reading, and thus take longer than necessary to
complete.

Improved Probe Design:

Heres a better example of the probe, where the blank is placed at the end of the probe.

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Rule # 5: Avoid Redundant Information

Poor Probe Design:
Notice the redundancy in the example below. In this example, the student has to read The cell will
typically three separate times.

Improved Probe Design:

Notice that weve placed as much information in the stem as possible to avoid redundant information in
the alternative answers. This decreases the burden of reading, and more clearly defines the question or
problem.

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Rule #6: Create Plausible Distractors

Poor Probe Design:
The probe below poses the question Who was the 2nd president of the United States? The distractors
George Bush and Bill Clinton are not plausible distractors for most students- so students can quickly
eliminate these options as possible answers.

Improved Probe Design:

The improved version of the probe makes all the alternatives are plausible, thus more effectively testing
the students knowledge.

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Rule #7: Keep Grammar Consistent

Poor Probe Design:
Notice the grammatical clue that is given in this example. Because the article a was used in the probe,
the only alternative that makes this statement grammatically correct is the first choice, cell.

Improved Probe Design:

Notice that in the question stem a(n) is used before the blank. This removes the grammatical clue from
the probe.

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Rule # 8: Avoid Unnecessary or Irrelevant Information

Poor Probe Design:
The stem in this probe contains a lot of irrelevant information. The information regarding the year of
birth, and place of birth is unnecessary, and only seeks to distract the student.

Improved Probe Design:

Heres a better alternative. In this example, the irrelevant information has been removed.

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Rule #9: Make Answer Choices Homogenous

This rule is especially relevant when creating matching probes.
Poor Probe Design:
Look at the options in this matching probe. Note that students are expected to differentiate between
dates, and individuals. This can cause confusion.

Improved Probe Design:

A better option would be to create a matching probe with just dates

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and a separate matching probe with just individuals.

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Rule #10: Minimize Use of Which of the following Phrases

Poor Probe Design:
Take a look at this example. Notice that the stem begins with the Which of the following phrase.
Try to avoid probes that begin with this phrase, as it forces students to look at the options presented first,
before considering answers they might think up on their own.

Improved Probe:
A better option might be to recreate the question as a fill-in-the-blank probe, such as in the example here.
The fill-in-the-blank structure encourages students to think up answers on their own, instead of simply
choosing from a list of options.

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Below is a recap of the Top Ten Rules for Developing Effective Probes:

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