Question Types and Examples

Performance-based questions

Students authentically demonstrate that they can navigate within spreadsheet, word processor, database, browser, and presentation applications and perform complex tasks. The simulated software has realistic menus and functionality and is deliberately generic to not represent any specific brand or version of software. This generic representation enables the assessment to measure durable technology literacy skills that students need as they encounter different brands and versions of software at school, home, libraries, online, and in the future.

In the example shown, students must navigate to the second slide in a presentation and then find and add a video. Skills such as these can only be authentically measured by enabling students to perform the task in software. Multiple choice and rote memory-based sequence questions would not assess the students’ ability to perform the task, and the correct answer would typically only be true of one brand and specific version of the software. In addition, a hot-spot based question that presents a student with a single step to click on in a screenshot does not assess the ability to perform a complex task. In contrast, an authentic assessment enables students to demonstrate that they can navigate through an application and find and perform the steps to accomplish the task. Performance-based questions in 21st Century Skills Assessment have as many as 12 correct answers, any of which would be scored correct.

In the example below, the student is required to choose the correct next step to view a simulation. The links and advertisements are realistic distracters that cause the mouse arrow to become a hand that can select. For this question, the realistic controls of the simulated browser also become distracters.

Multiple choice questions

21st Century Skills Assessment uses two types of multiple choice questions: those that show graphical examples, and those that are text-based.

In the two questions shown below, students must select the appropriate data.

The example shown below is a text-based multiple choice question that assesses students’ ability to find valid information online.