Multiple Choice Paragraphs

I imagine a variation on the conventional multiple choice question that tests a students familiarity with concepts, or a series of facts that have some cohesion.  To do this, we are going to give the student a paragraph in which are embedded multiple choice list boxes.  In programming and web development, they are called drop down combo, or list, boxes. Since some  test composers may be unfamiliar with the terminology, I will call these list boxes "choice" boxes.  Using the format I present below, the test composer can write out the paragraph on any text editor and the web developer can implement the choice boxes.

The first item in the list will be blank and it is this blank that will appear within the paragraph.  The choice box  has a down arrow to the right of the blank space.  The student will select from the choices listed by clicking on the down arrow.  The student can select the empty choice and continue on in the paragraph if they are unsure.  This way the student can easily see what blanks still need to be answered.

Choices do not have to be limited to one word although choice phrases should be fairly terse so that the list box will fit on the page.

 It is important that the composer of the paragraph not betray some choices by the use of a particular form of an article before the choice box.  For example, the use of "an" before the box might cue the student that the correct choice begins with a vowel.  Inform the students that the article before the choice box does not determine the proper choice from the list.  As such, the sentence may read slightly awkward in places.

In the examples below, I will use curly braces to denote a choice box.  The choices will be separated by commas.  The test composer does not need to include the default blank choice, leaving it up to the web developer to insert that in each choice box.  The test composer may insert a comment within the choices or at the end of the choices but within the curly braces.  Comments begin with /* and end with */.  For instance, /*comment here*/ These comments could be an explanation for the knowledge the choice box is testing or any other requirement of the composer or institution.  The test composer should enclose the correct choice in hash tags.  For example, {choice 1, #choice 2#, choice 3}.  Note that the hash tags precede and follow the choice within the commas.

In the example below I have included a number of choice boxes simply to illustrate the method.  An example from  philosophy:

Rene Descartes was a {2nd, #17th#, 20th} century philosopher and {priest, prince, astronomer, #mathematician#/* student should be aware that a mathematical sensibility  is central to Descartes' approach to philosophy*/} who developed a {#ontological#, Aristotelian, teleological, causal} argument for the existence of God first proposed by {Aristotle, Acquinas, #Anselm#, Jesus/*student should know that Anselm's argument is similar to Descartes'*/}.  This type of argument focuses on the {#being#, purpose, fairness, cause} of God.  A central part of this argument is God's {#perfection#, necessity, divinity, power}.  Descartes argued that God must exist because {the world must have had a first cause, #existence is part of perfection#, it is written in the Bible}.

Paragraphs can consolidate particular "takeaways" and test whether the student has assimilated the material.

Note: The hash tags and comment tags are called markup.  The web developers at an institution might want to use different markup sympbols if it interferes with the programming language of their platform.