Dynamic Questions are how FrontalCortex.com started.
I was studying for board exams, doing practice multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in a big book. If I missed a question, I'd mark it. I'd study the concept the question was testing, and some time later I'd go through the book again and look at all the questions I missed.
I discovered that it is much easier to recognize that the answer to #37 is "b" than to understand the citric acid cycle.
Dynamic Questions are small programs that have a bank of raw data from which they can create multiple choice questions from scratch. But here's the beautiful thing: they change every time you load them. Even very simple Dynamic Questions have billions of permutations. So you could reload one Dynamic Question all day, and never see the same wording twice. Because they contain all the basic information you need to learn about a concept, and constantly change, you learn the concept, and not that the answer is "b."
Here are some examples. Try reloading these over and over, and you'll see what I mean:
Mixing with Face-to-Face Learning
- A gap in the knowledge base found, requiring practice/memorization
- Here’s the concept
- Now try applying it again and again
- Here’s a way to help you
Example:
Chair of the department: Hey, medical student. What foramen does the 7th cranial nerve come out of?
Medical Student: Aaaak!
jdmiles: Here. Practice this question. Then go talk with the chair again.
Outcome:
Sometimes helpful when repetition is needed
Better for self-study than for face-to-face
Can't be created by general users
Very labor intensive to create