Essay Item Construction in ODL: Challenges and Future Direction

Student assessment is critical in Open and Distance learning. Essay items are used in most disciplines at Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) to assess students formatively and summatively. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of essay test construction and make recommendations on how to improve essay construction in ODL.. A case study was conducted at ZOU Midlands region to determine lecturers’ and students’ opinions on the process of item essay construction, their quality and challenges faced in whole exercise. Commensurate with the qualitative research approach, focus group interviews and, individual interviews were employed to collect data from the participants. Documents that included examination reports, assignments and examination items were perused to triangulate data from participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study established that the process of constructing essay items was viewed as satisfactory since initial items were moderated at some stage in the process but the exercise did not wholly perfect the items. The participants opined that in some instances principles of item construction were followed, while in others they were not. General weaknesses were attributed to some factors including lack of proper lecturer education in essay item construction at regional and national levels. The study recommends staff development of lecturers in item construction to boost lecturers’ competencies, among other things. Furthermore lecturers without an educational base need to be encouraged to do (PGDE) Post Graduate Degree in Education to equip them with the requisite skills.