Self evaluation questions
"Self Evaluation" Questions
Some learning units ask you to contribute self-evaluation questions that will improve your own understanding ("learning by teaching") and help others too. Here is a collection of templates for such questions.
Contents
Principles
As you are working through a learning unit, think of the material in terms of interesting, relevant, meaningful questions and solutions. This helps you focus on what is essential and what is peripheral to the unit - essentially, you are looking for the "Take Home Message" in what you do. To design your own questions, review what makes a "good question", then figure out into which category it falls. There are a number of prototype question types below, with Wiki code that you can read, copy and adapt.
- Good questions
Sometimes, for a particular purpose, simple "memorize-and-regurgitate" questions are "good", but more often good questions will test understanding and higher cognitive capabilities. A hierarchy that was used in a recent study[1] proposes the following categories (modified):
| Level | Category | Meaning |
| 1 | Remember | Factual recall; simple formulas and numbers. |
| 2 | Understand | Basic understanding of concepts. |
| 3 | Apply | Apply knowledge to single step problem solving. |
| 4 | Analyze | Multi-step problem solving; need to identify problem-solving strategy before execution. |
| 5 | Evaluate | Compare and assess various problem-solving options; explain concepts. |
| 6 | Create | Synthesis of knowledge, skills, and concepts from multiple domains; combine analysis and evaluation. |
As you design your question, try to make it interesting and ensure that the solution is rewarding in its own right. Ideally, the question would be at the Understand level, or higher. However, be mindful of time constraints.
Do you think there is a really good question, but the existing material does not cover what it needs to answer? Excellent! Propose to the instructor to improve the learning unit.
Template
You can copy this code as a template to create your own questions. For alternative templates, see below.
==Question XX==
QUESTION TEXT
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer ...
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
ANSWER TEXT
</div>
</div>
You can also view the source code for the following question prototypes, and adapt it to your question.
Prototype: True or False
True or false?
- After selecting a single atom of a protein structure displayed in Chimera, pressing the UP arrow key will select all atoms of that residue.
- The higher the sequence similarity, the more likely the success of homology modelling.
- A sequence number is absolute because it is always assigned with respect to the start codon of the protein
Answer ...
- TRUE
- TRUE
- FALSE - a sequence number can vary considerably for a specific context (for example, the first residue of the 1BM8 structure is
GLN 3; this is residue 4 of the protein sequence, and residue 1 of the sequence that is implied by the coordinates.)
== Question X==
True or false?
# A true statement ...
# Another true statement ...
# A false statement
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer ...
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
# TRUE
# TRUE
# FALSE - explain why this is false and state what's true instead.
</div>
</div>
--~~~~
{{Vspace}}
Prototype: Multiple Choice
- Check all true statements
- ☐ Homology is a quantity, not a quality.
- ☐ If A is homologous to B, then B is always homologous to A.
- ☐ If A is homologous to B and B is homologous to C, then A is always homologous to C
- ☐ Homologous proteins (nearly) always have similar structure, usually have similar functions, but dissimilar sequence does not mean that two sequences can't be homologues.
Answers ...
- ☐ Homology is a quantity, not a quality.
- ☑ If A is homologous to B, then B is always homologous to A.
- ☑ If A is homologous to B and B is homologous to C, then A is always homologous to C
- ☑ Homologous proteins (nearly) always have similar structure, usually have similar functions, but dissimilar sequence does not mean that two sequences can't be homologues.
== Question X==
;The question that sets up the choices ...
:<span style="font-size:150%;text-decoration:bold; color:#000000">☐</span> Choice 1
:<span style="font-size:150%;text-decoration:bold; color:#000000">☐</span> Choice 2 etc.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer ...
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
:<span style="font-size:150%;text-decoration:bold; color:#00AA55">☑</span> Repeat Choice 1 here. This is an answer that should have been checked. Explain why if not obvious.
:<span style="font-size:150%;text-decoration:bold; color:#AA0000">☐</span> Repeat Choice 2 here. This is an answer that should NOT have been checked. Explain why.
</div>
</div>
--~~~~
{{Vspace}}
Prototype: Matching
Match the following R functions with the best description of their result:
1. is.numeric(x)
2. duplicated(1, 2, 1)
3. is.null(x)
4. exists("x")
5. is.valid(x) |
A. Checks if the object x can be found in the environment |
Answer ...
1:G; 2:D; 3:B; 4:A; 5:C.
Notes:
- - The result of
is numeric(x)depends on the type that x has been assigned to. Characters, factors, Boolean variables and functions give FALSE. - - The correct expression to yield the result "E" is not given in 2, but is
duplicated(c(1, 2, 1)). Try it. 2 gives only FALSE.
== Question X==
Match ... <elements to the left> with the best <elements to the right>:
<table><tr>
<td>
1. Duck
2. Crow
3. Swan
4. Hawk
5. Kiwi
</td>
<td> </td>
<td>
A. Fox<br />
B. Pig<br />
C. Dog<br />
D. Cat<br />
E. Elk<br />
F. Rat<br />
G. it depends...
</td>
</tr></table>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer ...
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* 1 – G <explain why ...>
* 2 – B <etc...>
</div>
</div>
--~~~~
{{Vspace}}
Prototype: Short Answer
(A) What is a "tract" in a genome browser? (B) name four information items that could be found in a tract.
Answer:
(A) Tracts are strips of annotations displayed along coordinates in a genome.
(B) These annotations include:
- The actual sequence
- SNPs
- Regulatory features such as TF binding sites
- Gene boundaries (introns/exons)
- Results of ChIP chip experiments
- Conservation scores
- ...
==Question X==
'''(A)''' Part 1 of question. '''(B)''' Part 2 of question.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer:
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
'''(A)''' Answer...
'''(B)''' Answers:
*Item...
*Item...
*Item...
*Item...
*...
</div>
</div>
--~~~~
{{Vspace}}
Prototype: Interactive
- Consider the following statement. Underline the “target” once, underline the “template” twice, and draw a box around the “model”.
- The output of the homology modelling program was a coordinate set built from the backbone of the X-ray structure of the DNA binding domain of S. cerevisiae Mbp1, with sidechains corresponding to the homologous sequence in MYSPE.
Answer ...
- The program’s output was a coordinate set built from the backbone of the x-ray structure of the DNA binding domain of S. cerevisiae Mbp1, with sidechains corresponding to the homologous sequence of MYSPE.
==Question X==
;Consider the following statement. Underline the “target” once, underline the “template” twice,
and draw a box around the “model”.
:The homology modelling program’s output was a coordinate set built from the backbone
of the x-ray structure of the DNA binding domain of ''S. cerevisiae'' Mbp1, with sidechains
corresponding to the homologous sequence in MYSPE.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Answer ...
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
:The program’s output was a <span style="border: 1px solid #CC0000;">coordinate set</span>
built from the backbone of the <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CC0000; padding:0.0em">
<span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CC0000; padding:0.2em">x-ray structure of the DNA
binding domain of ''S. cerevisiae'' Mbp1</span></span>, with sidechains corresponding to the
<span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CC0000">homologous sequence of MYSPE</span>.
</div>
</div>
--~~~~
{{Vspace}}
Notes
- ↑ Bates, S.P. et al. (2014) Assessing the quality of a student-generated question repository.
