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About JCE QBank
For many years the Journal of Chemical Education has maintained a column that publishes novel, exemplary examination questions. Originally called Exam Question Exchange, the column was renamed Resources for Student Assessment in the 1990s. JCE QBank is an extension of Resources for Student Assessment to the Web, providing questions that can be downloaded and used for examinations, quizzes, or homework and delivered either via pencil-and-paper assessments, or via course-management systems such as WebCT.

 

   JCE QBank
Discussion
Current trends in chemical education emphasize a wider range of options for assessing student learning than the traditional hour exam or final exam that contains a selection of numerical problems to work. A major focus is on the desirability of posing challenges that will prompt students to realistically assess their own progress in a non-graded situation. In particular, students’ grasp of chemical concepts (as contrasted with the ability to work numerical problems) has begun to assume larger importance. Questions revolving around concepts can help students sharpen their mental models of nature. Likewise, questions that can induce productive discussion among students are desirable, because they can facilitate understanding and foster skills in communal problem solving. These must be carefully formulated both from the point of eliciting some student interest and of relying on the extent of chemical knowledge that students could reasonably be expected to possess. Questions posed in novel formats such as using video clips or employing computer technology can increase student involvement and interest and also can assess different aspects of a student’s understanding. A particularly interesting subclass of these is questions that involve hands-on, interactive participation on the part of students.

All of the types of questions listed above, as well as many other types that we have not thought of or written down, are useful resources for student assessment, and we welcome contributions either in print or for online delivery. If you would like to contribute, contact us at jceqbank@chem.wisc.edu. Describe what kinds of questions you have available, how many there are, at what level they can be used appropriately, and what means are used to deliver them to students. We will get back in touch to let you know how your questions can be added to JCE QBank.

Answers to Questions

Answers to many of the questions in JCE QBank can be supplied to those teaching chemistry courses. To obtain access to a Web site from which you can download answers to many questions and complete collections of questions for course-management systems (such as WebCT or Desire 2 Learn), email to jceqbank@chem.wisc.edu. Include your full name, title, and email address, as well as the name and address of your school, college, or university. Once your status as a teacher has been verified, you will be sent a username and password, valid for one year, to the download site. There is a $20 fee for handling each request.

Get details about answers for specific collection.

Submissions Guidelines
JCE QBank collects questions for examinations, quizzes, homework, and other assessments. Anyone who has collected and categorized a significant number of questions is encouraged to submit them to JCE QBank. Each submission will be peer reviewed and, if accepted will have a 400-word summary published as a peer-reviewed publication in print in JCE.

View examples of collections we have published

To be suitable for JCE QBank, a collection of questions must

  • Consist of at least 50 questions
  • Be carefully constructed and of high quality
  • Be accompanied by a brief description (400 words or less) of how the questions can be used and the reasons for creating the collection
  • Be divided into groups of related questions
  • Have appropriate keywords from the JCE restricted vocabulary assigned to each group of questions
  • Be submitted in a digital format that can easily be added to JCE QBank

Authors are also encouraged to

  • Provide two versions for each group of questions, one containing answers and one without answers
  • Provide evidence based on chemical education research to show that the questions serve a useful pedagogical function.

Submissions to JCE QBank may be for open review or may be for peer review. Submissions intended for open review will be evaluated by QBank editors. If a submission is judged to be appropriate, it will be added to the collection. Submissions intended for peer review should specify that method of review. They will be evaluated by peer reviewers. If, on the basis of the reviews, they are deemed acceptable, they will be added to the collection and the 400-word summary will be printed in JCE over the authors’ by-line, providing publication credit.

Authors should divide questions into related groups based on the type and level of students for which the questions are intended and the subject matter the questions assess. Each group of questions should be assigned keywords from the JCE restricted vocabulary of keywords. For each group there should be specified a single Domain keyword, a single Pedagogy keyword, a single Audience keyword, and as many Topic keywords as are needed to categorize the group of questions (usually between two and eight).

Each group of questions should be submitted as a single computer file. If necessary a single folder of supporting files (images, etc) should accompany the question file. (If answers to the questions are also provided, there should be two question files, one with and one without answers. JCE will provide answers to the questions only to those who are bona fide teachers and who request the answers.) Question files can be generated by a word processor or they can be HTML files. Each file and folder (if supplied) should be named to clearly indicate the content and author of the questions.

For ease of handling and to facilitate entering groups of questions into JCE QBank, an index (e.g., doc or html) of the entire collection should be included. The index should specify metadata for each file, including:

  • File/folder name
  • Title (name of collection and topic)
  • Domain keyword
  • Pedagogy keyword
  • Audience keyword
  • Topic keyword(s)
  • Name(s) and address(es) of author(s)
  • Institution(s)

Submissions intended for peer review should include a JCE Copyright Assignment form. The collection with its index, files, folders, and copyright assignment should be submitted electronically in a single, zip-archived folder on a CD-ROM or by FTP.

If you have questions regarding this submission process, please direct them to the JCE staff at jceqbank@chem.wisc.edu.
Collection Curators
JCE QBank is headed by John W. Moore, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Thomas Holme, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, editor of the JCE QBank column.
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