Abstract

Integrated testlets are a means to assess a student’s understanding of complex knowledge through a set of scaffolded questions within an answer-until-correct format, and with grades that can, if desired, be awarded according to the number of attempts made by the student. Integrated testlets have been delivered to students at several universities in Canada, in physics, chemistry, and biology. In comparison with traditional multiple-choice-based assessments that ask items that are wholly independent of each other, an integrated testlet purposefully poses a set of integrated and dependent items that build on each other. This allows for the assessment and formative learning of deeper and more interconnected aspects of the course material. This is important in all STEM disciplines, and especially beneficial for cumulative and interdisciplinary fields such as optics and photonics. In the past few years we have for the first time extended integrated testlet delivery to an online format using the WeBWorK delivery system, and more recently included these within end-of-chapter questions throughout a textbook in optics as part of our significant update and revision of the classic, internationally-known, Introduction to Optics text by F. L. Pedrotti, L. S. Pedrotti, and L. M. Pedrotti. For students this provides the benefits of integrated testlets as originally conceived, while also connecting topics within the book. This has encouraged us as authors to use deliberate and mindful composition practices, and advanced our skills in conveying the breadth and depth of the many concepts within optics and photonics.

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