Sidebar
Answer Comment
Please always provide an answer comment. The answer comment is essential for students, because it helps
- to disclose the expert knowledge that was necessary to answer the question
- to reveal potential errors in reasoning.
Advice for the design of answer comments
- The length of an answer comment should follow the basic principle “as short as possible and as long as necessary”. If the student has to read too much text on screen it may be tiring and demotivating.
- Structure your answer text in such a way as to easily find the comments that belong to each answer possibility. For example, with multiple-choice questions you can simply state to which answer the comment belongs (“to A”, “to B”, etc.).
- It may be appropriate to refer to the order of default answers or to answer all incorrect/correct default answers first.
- Comment on all correct and incorrect answers so that the student can learn from his or her mistakes.
- Do not use demotivating statements like, “It should be clear to everyone that answer B is wrong” or “This task was very easy”.
The answer comment should NOT
- provide information that elaborates the storyboard (→ info text)
- introduce new findings, information concerning the patient, etc. (→ info text)
- inform about a learning setting (→ info text)
- provide expert knowledge that exceeds the knowledge necessary to answer the question (→ expert comment).
Page Tools
