For visual questions such as ‘drag and drop’ and ‘name the parts’ it is generally best to use schematic images, drawings and diagrams rather than photographs. The reason for not using photographs is that they contain too much information, detail and clutter – this may seem rather counter intuitive at first. It might help if you consider how many technical maintenance manuals and textbooks use diagrams rather than photographs.

For your visual questions, make sure your students have the required ‘visual literacy’ to understand the question – best to check this early on by formative / diagnostic tests. This is particularly important in some disciplines where understanding charts, graphs and symbols etc. is important

This may seem obvious, but do remember to get someone to proof read your assessment materials

If you can, get a subject matter colleague to check your assessment materials to see if they make sense and are appropriate for the subject and level

As a baseline check – ask yourself how your assessment fits back with the learning outcomes and criteria of the course they are being developed for and map to them explicitly. Sometimes when you are closely involved in tasks like this you can drift off course so it’s always good to check. Record the mapping of the questions to the learning outcomes and criteria in your offline records.