Creating Effective Distractors

Distractors

Incorrect answers, distractors, provide questions with a frame of reference, and opportunities to address errors and Confidently Held Misinformation (CHM).

CHM is learner knowledge that they are sure is correct but is actually wrong. An average of 25% – 35% of an organization’s employee information is considered CHM, which means almost a third of and employee’s knowledge is wrong, and confidently held. This can open the door to risk, harm, and loss.

Therefore, a good place to find plausible distractors is in your source material.

When drafting distractors for multiple-choice-answer and multiple-correct-answer questions, consider the following factors:

• Common misconceptions
• Everyday mistakes on the job
• Frequent questions in class
• Outdated information
• Potentially harmful errors of omission

Distractors don't apply to matching-answer questions.

Creating Distractors in Multiple-Choice Questions

There are also specific considerations for multiple-choice-answer questions:

• Don’t include too many incorrect answers. Up to four is typically plenty.
• Make sure the correct answer is the only possible correct answer. If it isn’t, consider making the question a multiple-correct-answer question.
  
  Make each incorrect answer count! Use them as opportunities to address CHM.  

Creating Distractors in Multiple-Correct Questions

Multiple-correct-answer questions also requires specific considerations:

• Don’t include mark all answers that apply verbiage. This is automatically included by the platform. Although it does not appear in Authoring, it will show up for learners. 
  
  At least three answer choices must be included. Some or all can be correct. If only one answer is correct, consider changing the question to a multiple-choice-answer type.