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Elevate Your Assessment Questions with ChatGPT

Four Ways to Create Higher-Level Assessment Questions with ChatGPT

Assessment is crucial for giving educators insight into learners’ progress and measuring their learning outcomes. It’s also a step that is sometimes overlooked or underutilized because the process of creating and grading effective assessments is tedious and often difficult. ChatGPT is a helpful ally here, able to generate worksheets, assessments, and handouts and crank out multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short-answer, and even essay questions. 

However, traditional assessment approaches often struggle to evaluate higher-order thinking skills and encourage deep understanding effectively. ChatGPT comes through here, too, enabling educators to create scenario-based questions, develop well-crafted distractors for multiple-choice assessments, generate questions aligned with different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and facilitate meaningful discussions based on provided text prompts.

Let’s look at four ways to use ChatGPT to elevate assessment design, engaging students in higher-level thinking and promoting deeper understanding.

1. Scenario-Based Questions

One thing ChatGPT does very well is create scenarios for assessment questions. The basic prompt for this is: 

“I am writing an assessment for a ______ course on the topic of _____. Generate a scenario that I can use as the basis for assessment questions.”

A ChatGPT prompt that states: I am writing an assessment for a nursing ethics course on the topic of ethical decision-making in patient care. Please generate an example scenario about ethical decision-making in patient care that I can use as a basis for some assessment questions.

You can get more specific about the type of questions you’re looking for; for example, “Generate a scenario that I can use as the basis for 5 multiple-choice assessment questions,” or “Generate a scenario to use as the basis for an essay on an exam.”

Here is what ChatGPT provided for my nursing ethics prompt:  

Image ChatGPT's response: Scenario: You are a nurse working in the critical care unit of a busy hospital. One evening, you receive a patient named Mr. Johnson, a 65-year-old man who has been admitted with severe pneumonia. Mr. Johnson has a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been struggling to breathe. His condition rapidly deteriorates, and it becomes clear that he requires immediate intubation and ventilation to support his breathing. However, while preparing for intubation, you notice that Mr. Johnson has a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order in his medical record. The DNR order indicates that in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest, no life-saving interventions should be performed. As per hospital policy, all healthcare professionals are required to follow and respect the patient's wishes as expressed in the DNR order. You discuss the situation with the attending physician, who is not aware of Mr. Johnson's DNR status. The physician is insistent that intubation is necessary to save Mr. Johnson's life, as without intervention, his condition is likely to worsen rapidly and could result in cardiac or respiratory arrest. As a nurse, you are faced with an ethical dilemma. On one hand, you have a duty to advocate for the patient's autonomy and respect his wishes as outlined in the DNR order. On the other hand, you also have a duty to promote the patient's well-being and potentially save his life through intubation.

It also generated 10 open-ended questions about the scenario. I followed up by asking it for multiple-choice questions, and it responded with 10 of those as well. When I added to the scenario and asked it to create a specific multiple-choice question about how the nurse should respond in the situation I created, it provided what I was looking for.

Prompt: Suppose the nurse learned of the patient's DNR order and told the attending physician, and the attending physician said that they planned to ignore it and intubate the patient anyway. Please generate a multiple-choice question about how the nurse should respond, with one correct response and three distractors. ChatGPT response: Certainly! Here's a multiple-choice question based on the given scenario: How should the nurse respond if the attending physician plans to ignore the patient's DNR order and proceed with intubation? a) The nurse should comply with the physician's decision and assist with the intubation procedure. b) The nurse should document the physician's decision and proceed with the intubation as ordered. c) The nurse should respectfully express concerns about disregarding the patient's DNR order and advocate for its respect. d) The nurse should inform the patient's family about the physician's decision and seek their input. In this scenario, the correct response would be: c) The nurse should respectfully express concerns about disregarding the patient's DNR order and advocate for its respect. This response aligns with the nurse's responsibility to advocate for the patient's autonomy and respect their expressed wishes as documented in the DNR order. By expressing concerns, the nurse upholds ethical principles and promotes open communication with the attending physician, aiming to find a resolution that aligns with the patient's autonomy while ensuring patient-centered care.

I’ve used that basic prompt structure to create scenarios for assessment questions about topics from psychological assessment and diagnosis to sustainable resource management to conflict resolution in the workplace. As straightforward use cases that save a lot of time go, generating example scenarios is one of my favorites.

To view the full exchange in ChatGPT, click here.

2. Distractors (Wrong Answers) for Multiple-Choice Questions

Another time-saving use for ChatGPT in creating assessments is coming up with the wrong answers for multiple-choice questions. You can plug in a question and the correct answer and ask ChatGPT to provide distractors, or you can also ask for it to create a correct answer.

Image of ChatGPT Prompt: Assessment question: Which of these is an example of the psychologist demonstrating active listening in their interaction with the client? Please provide 1 correct answer and 3 distractors. ChatGPT response: Correct answer: a) The psychologist maintains eye contact with the client, nods in agreement, and paraphrases the client's statements to ensure understanding. Distractors: b) The psychologist frequently interrupts the client to share personal anecdotes and experiences. c) The psychologist checks their phone periodically during the session, appearing distracted and disinterested. d) The psychologist dismisses the client's concerns and jumps to providing advice without fully listening to the client's perspective.

To view this exchange in ChatGPT, click here. 

3. Higher-Order Questions

With the right prompt, ChatGPT can generate questions for different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy: 

Image of a transcript of an exchange with ChatGPT. Prompt: Write assessment questions for an ethics in social work course related to the learning objective, "Describe the inherent dangers of dual relationships." The questions should use the Bloom's Taxonomy levels of apply, analyze, and evaluate. ChatGPT response: Apply (Level 3 of Bloom's Taxonomy): You are a social worker assigned to a small community where you have personal relationships with several individuals. How would you navigate the potential dual relationships while maintaining professional boundaries and ethical standards? Provide specific steps or strategies you would employ. Imagine you are working as a social worker in a rural setting where the community members are closely interconnected. A client you are currently assisting approaches you to invite you to their family gathering. Apply ethical principles to decide whether attending the event would constitute a dual relationship and explain your decision.

To view this exchange in ChatGPT, click here.

4. Questions About a Text 

You can also paste in the text of an article, essay, or story and ask ChatGPT to generate discussion questions. I copied and pasted this article about the smoke from Ontario wildfires affecting cities on the East Coast and asked ChatGPT to generate discussion questions for a political science class.

Image of a transcript with ChatGPT about political science prompt. Prompt: I'm going to paste in the text of an article. Please generate 5 discussion questions about the article that would be appropriate for a college political science class. ChatGPT response: Certainly! Please provide the text of the article, and I'll be happy to generate five discussion questions for your college political science class.

It first responded with more general questions about the article, but when I asked it to tailor the questions for a political science class, it came through:

Image of ChatGPT transcript of questions from the previous prompt. Here are the questions it provided: 1. How does the recent event of smoke carpeting the East Coast underscore the political and governance challenges associated with addressing climate change and its impact on severe weather conditions? 2. Analyze the role of political actors, such as politicians and scientists, in framing the connection between climate change and wildfires. How do they shape public discourse and policy responses to climate-related disasters? 3. Discuss the political implications of climate change-induced wildfires on different regions of the United States, particularly the West Coast and the East Coast. How might these differing impacts influence policy priorities, resource allocation, and intergovernmental relations? 4. Explore the role of international cooperation in addressing climate change and mitigating the risks associated with wildfires. What are the political barriers to effective global action, and how can political leaders overcome these challenges to achieve meaningful climate agreements? 5. Examine the political dynamics surrounding the trade-off between environmental regulations and economic interests, particularly in relation to the prevention and management of wildfires. How do different political ideologies and interest groups influence policy decisions in this context?

To view this in ChatGPT, click here.

One thing to note: You may run into a character limit when inputting text into ChatGPT. If this happens, paste in as much as will fit, tell ChatGPT you aren’t finished adding text, and continue to add sections of text in as many messages as it takes. Just know that by the time you’ve entered it all, ChatGPT may need to be reminded of what you’re asking it to do.

ChatGPT offers educators a valuable tool for enhancing assessment practices. By utilizing ChatGPT, educators can create scenario-based questions, develop well-crafted distractors for multiple-choice assessments, generate questions aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy, and facilitate thoughtful discussions based on provided text prompts. Embracing ChatGPT as part of assessment design can empower educators to foster higher-level thinking and deeper understanding among students.

Fill out the form below to download our pdf tip sheet for using ChatGPT to create higher-order assessment questions! 

Abi Bechtel

Abi Bechtel is a writer, educator, and ChatGPT enthusiast. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northeast Ohio MFA program through the University of Akron, and she just thinks generative AI is neat.

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