Automatic distractor generation in multiple-choice questions: a systematic literature review

Background: Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are one of the most used assessment formats. However, creating MCQs is a challenging task, particularly when formulating the distractor. Numerous studies have proposed automatic distractor generation. However, there has been no literature review to summarize and present the current state of research in this field. This study aims to perform a systematic literature review to identify trends and the state of the art of automatic distractor generation studies. Methodology: We conducted a systematic literature following the Kitchenham framework. The relevant literature was retrieved from the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. Results: A total of 60 relevant studies from 2009 to 2024 were identified and extracted to answer three research questions regarding the data sources, methods, types of questions, evaluation, languages, and domains used in the automatic distractor generation research. The results of the study indicated that automatic distractor generation has been growing with improvement and expansion in many aspects. Furthermore, trends and the state of the art in this topic were observed. Conclusions: Nevertheless, we identified potential research gaps, including the need to explore further data sources, methods, languages, and domains. This study can serve as a reference for future studies proposing research within the field of automatic distractor generation.