47 Deciding on an exam and its format
How did you decide if you should give an exam, or decide on the format?
BF: Susie told us we could decide about exams between us, so—feeling like maybe I should,
because this was a mandatory course and I didn’t want anyone in admin outside of ECS to get shirty later about how we ran the thing — I decided to have one in the Winter term. I…
- came up with one reflective question and one based on course material (both with choices of topic);
- made the weight as low as possible;
- designed generous marking expectations;
- put length limits on each response; and
- showed the students the questions during our last synchronous class, allowing time for questions and comments.
They had about 10 days to compose their responses and submit them on Avenue, but the TAs and I encouraged them to spend only about as much time writing it as they would during an in-person exam: 2 hours or whatever they would get through SAS.
Although one student did say in the course eval that there shouldn’t have been an exam, the exams were a pleasure to read and I found students took the reflection question as seriously as they did the specifically content-based one. I’d use the same strategies in an in-person course, given the choice. To me, there is no frickin’ point — and certainly no pedagogical value — in testing whether someone can regurgitate factual material under the time pressure and utterly stressful and artificial environment of an in-person exam. They suck.
“In general, the exam should follow from the constructive alignment of learning goals, content, and assessment throughout the course.”
~ EG
EVH: Because of the exam request due date (see below), and the fact that you have to build your grade breakdown in the syllabus around it, you have to decide on whether to hold an exam early in the course planning. My students submitted a final essay at the end of term, so for a different type of assessment/learning consolidation, I opted for a take home exam with short answer, longer answer, and analysis questions. These questions required students to expand on key concepts with their own examples, or related to sections of readings that we didn’t get to in class (it was open book, so basic ‘define and discuss’ questions wouldn’t work). I also included points for spelling/grammar/clarity and for MLA formatting, in keeping with the expectations for written submissions. All of these adjustments were rooted in the needs of remote learning.