Training-question bank and testing

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Permalink Reply by Brent Sanger on July 25, 2009 at 8:49pm

I have both the IFSTA and Delmar editions of their latest teaching curriculum. Both of them come with test generators with large banks. They seem to be quite effective, and are easy to use. The IFSTA one took me a little bit of playing with it to figure it out, but now I can generate anything from a 5 question quiz to a 200 question final. And they are exportable to Adobe. With 1300 or more questions, duplication of questions is rare, unless you make a lot of progressive tests. And many other classes have similar test banks. The number of questions is dependent on the material being covered. For a 16 hour class there will be fewer questions than FF1, of course. Test writing is a skill you should learn if you write a lot of your own training materials. The test banks will help you learn that skill.

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Permalink Reply by James B O'Brien on July 26, 2009 at 5:19am

Thanks, Brent. It's a driver/operator training program (EVOC portion), so all the reference will be coming from either original content or other sources. I won't have a single text to go to. So I'll have to generate my own for the most part. That is the challenge. So I want to make sure I can manage it properly. Thank you for the info. Jim O'B

Brent Sanger said:

I have both the IFSTA and Delmar editions of their latest teaching curriculum. Both of them come with test generators with large banks. They seem to be quite effective, and are easy to use. The IFSTA one took me a little bit of playing with it to figure it out, but now I can generate anything from a 5 question quiz to a 200 question final. And they are exportable to Adobe. With 1300 or more questions, duplication of questions is rare, unless you make a lot of progressive tests. And many other classes have similar test banks. The number of questions is dependent on the material being covered. For a 16 hour class there will be fewer questions than FF1, of course. Test writing is a skill you should learn if you write a lot of your own training materials. The test banks will help you learn that skill.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Emert on July 27, 2009 at 2:52pm

James,

We are going to be conducting new hire testing this August and Captain promotion testing before the end of the year. I purchased a quiz generator and a bank of 1700 questions through Fire Instructor Testing Software, LLC. The 1700 questions are from IFSTA FF I & II, however, they have additional banks of questions from the Fire Officer series, Engineers...etc, etc. If you'd like I will let you know how things work out for us. It seems to be very user friendly, simple cut and paste stuff. I plan on using this for future hirings, promotions and trainings. Good luck and let me know what course of action you take.

Mark Emert
Affton Fire Prot. Dist.

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Permalink Reply by James B O'Brien on July 28, 2009 at 1:40pm

Thanks, Mark. Let me know. Technology is new to me, but it seems it could save a lot a work. I might even be able to figure it out. Thanx, J.O'B

Mark Emert said:

James,

We are going to be conducting new hire testing this August and Captain promotion testing before the end of the year. I purchased a quiz generator and a bank of 1700 questions through Fire Instructor Testing Software, LLC. The 1700 questions are from IFSTA FF I & II, however, they have additional banks of questions from the Fire Officer series, Engineers...etc, etc. If you'd like I will let you know how things work out for us. It seems to be very user friendly, simple cut and paste stuff. I plan on using this for future hirings, promotions and trainings. Good luck and let me know what course of action you take.

Mark Emert
Affton Fire Prot. Dist.

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