• Explain the Concept of question - banking
• Enumerate the steps in question - banking
• Set  up a question - bank

We have all heard of banks, eye-banks, blood-banks etc. but question banks? They can be considered a revolutionary idea in contemporary educational technology. Let us tell you something about them.

Most teachers and educational institutions claim to have a question bank - which in effect means collection of few hundred questions in a file (or may be in a computer). This is what exactly a question bank is not about. Just as simply by keeping a large number of questions, you do not create a question bank.

True that a question bank has to contain a large number of question, but it also has to have specific set of information pertaining to each question. Thus, the primary purpose of a question bank is to provide specific information about a question to teachers, administrators, students and society in general. Coming back to the example of a weight measures, question bank provides information regarding actual use of weight measure in the past.

Let us now introduce you to the information that is required for each question stored in the question bank. This includes -

• The content area covered.

• The specific learning outcome tested by the question.

• Time required for answering the question.

• Marks alloted.

• Facility value.

• Discrimination index.

• Reference form where the item has been taken.

To collect this set of information, the following general guidelines are usefull. The first step in this direction is to collect a large number of questions/items for the bank. The questions can be picked up from previous examination papers of your college/University or even other colleges. Teachers of a particular department can also be requested to contribute at least one question a day for the bank. Another good source of questions is the training workshops/sessions organised for teachers . Once a large base of questions has been created, the next step is to screen the questions. Peer review remains the best means of screening questions. Questions which are ambiguous, stereotypes, incorrect or repetitive should be discarded. Experience has shown that approximately half the questions are likely to be discarded in this manner.

Once the initial screening has been complete, the next step is to classify the questions. The classification has to be done in  2 ways-the first is according to the type of question  (viz. MCQ, True/False, Multiple facet, Short Answer, Matching etc.) and second is according to outcome of learning tested (viz. factual recall, understanding, analysis, problem solving etc.).

The questions so sorted are put to trial. As already stated, they should be appended at the beginning or end of an actual question paper. After the students have answered them, FV and DI are calculated as described before.
Questions with an acceptable FV and DI are retained for final inclusion in the question bank.

*Sorting the Question : One of the essential features of a question bank is the easy retrievability of the questions. bank is easy retrievability of the questions. to facilitate this, the question are written / typed on 8" x 5" cards, just similar to those used In a library catalogue. Side A of the card contains the subject matter, objective tested, question, key and reference while side B contains information about the use of the question and its FV / DI for that particular examination. Every time the question is used, this data is updated. It can be easily appreciated that although the process appears tedious but once it has been completed, the task of setting an examination paper becomes extremely easy.

Side A

Side B

Using the Question Bank : Once again, we will take you back to the table of specifications. Do you recall, that it gives you a blue print of weightage to be attached to different subject areas and different objectives within these subject areas. Thus, it tells you that out of subject area A, what precentage of questions have to test problem solving. With this information available at the back of the cards, all that one has to do is to pull out cards of desired objectives of known FV / DI and arrange them to form a question paper.

Question banking will increase the still of teachers as writers / reviewers of questions. There is no doubt that this will add to the process of learning. To be able to ask the right kind of question requires a thorough understanding of the subject matter, which can be develop only if teachers are well versed with the process of writing questions to test particular outcomes of learning. It will also ensure using the right kind of questions for right kind of examinations - using a question with FV of 100% for a selection test is obviously going to be a futile exercise !

Question banks have been shown to be useful for  student learning also. If the question bank is fairly large - meaning about 200 times the number of questions usually given in a test paper - it can even be left open for the students. Doubts have been raised that it may short circuit the process of learning. This certainly is not correct/ After all, a student who knows correct answers to over 10000 questions deserves credit for it !

There would be another advantage too. Creating question banks will bring transparency into the evaluation process and make inter college / university comparisons easier. This will help to build the faith of the society in examination systems and maintain uniform standards of teaching.