Quick Multiple Choice Questions with ChatGPT
Create and format questions in minutes!
Do you sometimes feel like Lucy Ricardo?
Are you tired, run-down, and listless from writing multiple-choice questions?
If you teach general education science courses for non-majors like I do, your answer to this question is a resounding "Yes!"
Maybe you've changed textbooks or prepared a new lecture covering a hot topic.
Maybe you want to assign a popular science article for students to read.
Perhaps you'd like to assess student understanding of terms and concepts presented in a documentary?
Whatever the reason, generating a decent set of MCQs—especially for online delivery where you want to present new questions with each attempt—can consume hours, if not days, of your time.
The poster child of AI, Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, ChatGPT, may not offer the intoxicating wonders of Vitameatavegamin. Still, it can dramatically reduce the time it takes to create, edit, and format multiple-choice questions.
That's what we'll cover here.
First, let me say that while I have more than 27 years of experience teaching college science classes, I am not an expert in AI or ChatGPT. I have read and written about AI applications in ocean science and ecology over the past couple of years, but I am very much a newbie practitioner where AI is concerned.
Consider that a good thing.
You're getting a non-expert's view of how to apply ChatGPT to fast-track some of the time-consuming tasks of teachers.
I've now written and deployed ChatGPT questions and activities in my online classes but have yet to implement AI-generated materials to their fullest potential.
Baby steps.
And second, in the interest of getting straight to the good stuff—suggestions for using ChatGPT to create questions—I'll forego any discussion of the pros and cons of multiple-choice questions in teaching and learning. Instead, I offer links at the end of this post for a helpful starting point on this topic.
Okay, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
2.1 How to Start with ChatGPT
If you've never used ChatGPT, this section is for you. Otherwise, feel free to skip down to the next section.
You'll need an account at the OpenAI website that hosts ChatGPT. It's free to use, but you'll need to register.
Visit the OpenAI website: Go to the OpenAI website (https://www.openai.com).
Navigate to the ChatGPT page, which you will find under the "Products" tab.
Click on "Sign up" to initiate the signup process.
Enter your email address. You may alternatively link it to a Gmail, Microsoft, or Apple account.
Verify your email: Open your email inbox and look for a verification email from OpenAI. Click on the verification link provided in the email to confirm your email address.
Complete the registration form: You'll receive a registration form after verifying your email. Fill in the required information, including your name, preferred username, and password. Follow any additional instructions or prompts that appear during the registration process.
Review the terms and conditions: Read and understand the terms of service and any other agreements presented during the signup process. Make sure you agree to comply with the terms before proceeding.
Submit your registration: Once you have completed the form and agreed to the terms, submit the form to create your ChatGPT account.
Access and use ChatGPT: You should receive confirmation of your account creation after successfully registering. You can now access ChatGPT!
2.2 Creating Multiple-Choice Questions
ChatGPT relies on text input to produce a result. This input—the text you type in the "Send a Message" —is a prompt.
A prompt may include many things. It can be written in a variety of ways. The idea is to engage in a conversation with the program. ChatGPT remembers what you've typed and how it responded, so you can ask for revisions depending on what you need.
I encourage you to try a few simple prompts first, such as:
What's the best way to get started with ChatGPT?
What can you tell me about teaching science?
Give me three recipes for vegan lasagna.
These simple prompts will give you an immediate idea of the kinds of information you can quickly extract from ChatGPT.
Now, if you want to generate multiple choice questions on a general topic to assess what students know and don't know about a topic, then you can simply type:
Create a set of [#] multiple-choice questions on [your topic]. Provide for each question four answers labeled a-d. Place an asterisk before the letter of the correct answer.
Here's what ChatGPT returned:
Note the placement of the asterisk, which prompted this exchange.
One more time . . .
Perfect. Although it took a couple attempts to get the format I wanted, ChatGPT took seconds to complete the tasks.
2.3 Formatting Questions
Many of us who teach use Canvas, a popular Learning Management System for hybrid (mixed in-person and online) and fully online courses. A "simple" way to populate question databases in Canvas is through the use of a program called Respondus. It's a powerful tool, though Mac users require virtualization software, such as Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or VirtualBox.
One advantage of Respondus is its ability to import a text file—according to a specific format—and upload it directly into a Canvas course. This allows you to create a set of questions using a word processing program and save it as a text file.
Creating your work in a word processing program gives you maximum flexibility. You can easily modify questions for other purposes and applications. This is not true if you compose your work directly in Respondus or Canvas, even if you export it.
A word to the wise: Always ensure you have access to your work. If the internet goes down, you have a copy to work on. And if the software changes, you don't have to figure out how to get your LMS-created questions out of the LMS.
Okay, the most straightforward Respondus multiple choice format may take a form like this:
Type: MC
1. Your question here.
a. distractor 1
b. distractor 2
*c. correct answer
d. distractor 3
Note that the periods after the answer letters may also be end parentheses, i.e., a).
Returning to ChatGPT, you might ask:
Modify these questions to the Respondus format.
Here's the exchange:
It's certainly possible that Respondus will correctly import questions in this format. (I haven't tried it and can't find anything online that indicates this is a proper format.) So I prompted ChatGPT to use the Respondus format we had set up in a previous conversation.
This might work. But given that I often mix question types, I want to be more specific.
There are, of course, many iterations you might try. You may want ChatGPT to format your questions for a different quizzing program. The point is that by using ChatGPT, you can create and format questions in a fraction of the time it would take to create and edit by hand.
2.4 Having Fun!
Okay, just for fun, let's try one more iteration. Let's say we wanted to improve the distractors or make one of the choices humorous to lighten a student's spirit.
Here's what I tried:
We can even ask ChatGPT to generate multiple answer questions.
And the funny answers?
As you can see in this short tutorial, ChatGPT offers a wide range of possibilities when it comes to creating multiple choice questions. Not only can it generate questions at the speed of light, but it allows you to explore different approaches and formats for your questions. All at the touch of a button.
In a future variation of multiple-choice testing, I hope to create an activity where students author their own set of questions, which are authored and rated by their classmates. Research suggests this activity, called peer generation and answering of multiple-choice questions, can inspire greater student engagement and deepen student learning (e.g., Rhind and Pettigrew 2012).
In my next post, I dive into using your own text-based material (chapters, articles, transcripts) to generate questions in ChatGPT.
Until then, may the dolphins guide you.
2.5 Some Useful Resources
The pros and cons of multiple choice testing
https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/multiple-choice-tests-pros-cons/
Advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of test questions
On the importance of spaced repetition for learning. Applicable to multiple choice assessments.
https://www.nwtutoring.com/2016/01/04/spaced-repetition/
Peer Generation of Multiple-Choice Questions: Student Engagement and Experiences
Rhind, Susan M. and Graham W Pettigrew. 2012. JVME 39(4): 375–379. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0512-043r