Strategies for Online Assessments

Strategies

When looking for ways to ensure continuity of instruction, you might wonder whether and how you will need to modify your exams and other assessments for your class if you need to move your course online. Many assessments (e.g., research papers, written projects, essays, etc.) can be addressed through Canvas or email, and may need little or no modification. However, some assessments (e.g., multiple-choice exams) require the instructor, TAs or a proctor to be present. If that is the case, it may be helpful to think about alternative ways to assess your students in the event that traditional face-to-face or online proctoring of exams is not available. Below are some key considerations for thinking about course-level assessments (particularly, multiple-choice exams) in a modified instructional environment. Then you will see some alternative formats for assessing student learning that may be helpful if you suddenly have to move your class online.

Set realistic expectations for you and your students.
In the current remote teaching climate presented by COVID-19 and the global shift to remote teaching and learning, focus on only the most essential knowledge, skills, and abilities you expect students to demonstrate by the end of the course. Take into account the degree to which students and faculty are potentially impacted by the change in the delivery of instruction. Lack of access to adequate hardware, Internet, and study space will have a significant impact on some domestic and international students’ ability to engage in coursework, as will concerns about personal health and well-being. As you consider what students will be able to demonstrate in a remote context, let go of any non-essential expectations. You may have to revise existing practices to account for current circumstances.
Communicate with students.
Explain to students why you’re making changes. Let them know you view their learning as paramount, and want to give them every opportunity to succeed in your class, even when modifications are necessary.
Enable students to demonstrate learning in multiple ways.
Instructors are encouraged to consider forms of assessment, other than online proctored exams, that will allow students to demonstrate their learning. Consider reducing the number of high-stakes assessments and moving to more, lower-stakes assessments (e.g., quizzes, reflection papers, problem sets). Lower-stakes assessments typically mean examining students’ learning more frequently, with points/percentages of the grade spread over multiple intervals in the term, rather than just two or three times (e.g., two midterms, one final). Lower-stakes assessments tend to reduce stress; less stress often means a reduced inclination to rely on outside sources.
Evaluate course changes for impacts on equity and inclusivity.
Changes made to your assessments should not harm students. When considering a possible change, ask yourself if the change could adversely affect any group of students in your class (e.g., First Generation, low income, domestic, international). Contact your Department Chair if you have questions about this aspect of your class.
Consider the pros and cons of each assessment method.
Each of the assessment options has strengths and limitations worth considering before you determine what methods best fit the content knowledge and skill(s) you are targeting, and your instructional context. Weigh your concerns about integrity of the assessment process against the possible learning advantages of using alternative forms of assessment. Also, consider the amount of time you and your TAs will need to modify the assessments, and to grade or provide feedback.
Consider modifying your grading structure.
Modify your grading structure to reflect your changed approach (such as by redistributing points to multiple lower-stakes assessments). Consult with your department chair for assistance.

Alternative to Exams

Current proctoring tools present significant limits, especially when students are located in different time zones, have internet connectivity problems, lack access to technology, may lack private space, or may be anxious about the proctoring procedures. For these reasons, we recommend considering alternative assessments. We are aware that alternative assessments may not always be possible in some remote teaching situations. We also provide recommendations for modified remote assessments that disincentivize cheating or plagiarism.

Closed Book Exam

If using the Closed-Book format, you may find the following suggestions helpful. Consider reducing the number of single-choice answers (e.g., multiple-choice questions), in order to add:

Short answer questions. Adding several short answer questions that have been tailored to information presented in lectures gives students a chance to display what they have learned. It also encourages students to maintain academic integrity by tying their responses to what they learned by attending your class.
A metacognition task. Insert a section where students look at errors on a past exam and explain the correct answer to earn a certain number of points determined in advance by the instructor. This develops metacognition, helps students improve their learning, and makes connections to students’ past class performance.
A transformative reflection. Provide a question asking students to write a short reflection on how the course has changed their thinking about the course topic or about a course sub-topic. This helps students become more aware of the effect your class has had on them intellectually.
Resource recommendations. Have students give a recommendation for two scholarly articles, news articles, videos, or other instructional media that the students have researched, by writing a short (1-2 paragraph) explanation of how these pieces could help future students understand the course material.
An application task. Have students choose a question from the exam and explain how the knowledge it tests is important when applied to the field. Make sure you have discussed applications in class, and if not, it may be helpful to let students know that you encourage innovation on this task. If application is something you have not discussed in class, you may want to modify your grading criteria to reflect this.
Move to an entirely short-essay exam format. If possible, convert your multiple-choice questions to a series of questions that require students to write one-to-two-paragraph responses synthesizing course content. Tailor the questions to your course’s specific content, to encourage students to produce their own work and to discourage inappropriate reliance on outside sources (i.e., plagiarism). Be sure to let students know the criteria you’ll use to evaluate their responses (e.g., a rubric) before they take the exam. If students have been expecting a multiple-choice test throughout the quarter, you may want to be mindful of the effect a sudden change in format can have on students’ ability to be successful on the exam, and weigh this against any changes you might make. If you feel the change is warranted, explain to students the reason for the change, and reassure them of your concern for their learning.
Assign an annotated bibliography. If a traditional exam is not possible, and it serves your learning outcomes for your students, you might consider having students write an annotated bibliography in which they choose 5-10 key scholarly articles from the course readings and write a short critical summary for each, explaining what the article is about and then giving their assessment of the article’s value to the field. Initially, students may think this is a difficult task, especially if they have never encountered such an assignment. Giving students a model for the task can help, and reminding students that it builds on skills they likely already possess (writing summaries, for example) can go a long way to ease their anxiety. If this is a novel task for students that is being introduced due to external circumstances affecting your course, you may want to adjust your grading criteria accordingly.
Assign an application task. Give students a real-world, problem-based application of the concepts (or just a single key concept) from your course and ask them to explain they would use the information learned in your class to solve the problem. This would require students to analyze the problem and then synthesize a response to it by revisiting the concepts learned in your course and applying them to the scenario you have described. This, again, could be difficult for some students. If application is something you have not discussed in class, you may want to modify your grading criteria to reflect this.

Open Book Exam

Open Book

This format promotes student learning and can help to neutralize the possibility that students will inappropriately rely on other resources to complete the exam by allowing them to consult other resources. The following elements can be added to the exam (alone or in combination) to help ensure that students maintain academic integrity when course assessments happen outside the classroom.

Add a section to the exam that requires students to give the course-related sources they used to answer each question (including page numbers, where appropriate), as well as the citation information of any other resources they used. Consider telling students they can use outside sources if they also give a well-considered recommendation as to whether the outside sources should be incorporated into the class in future quarters.
Add a question that asks students to write a short reflection on what they learned, either about the content or about their own learning processes from the process of researching the questions.
Have students choose one question or problem on the exam that was difficult and explain the process they went through to find the answer and/or to solve it.
Have students choose the most interesting question or section on the exam and write a short paragraph explaining why they think it was interesting. A variation on this: Have students choose the question or section of the exam that targets information they feel is most applicable to their future careers, and explain why they feel it is valuable for them to know this information.

The "Open Book" option allows students to engage with your full exam as you originally intended, perhaps even more deeply, while incorporating an individual component that reinforces students in practicing academic integrity.

Reflective Writing

Assigning students to write a short reflection on how the course has changed their thinking about the course topic or a sub-topic requires them to produce their own work and thus discourages inappropriate reliance on outside sources (i.e., plagiarism).

Bonus: This approach helps students become more aware of the effect your class has had on them intellectually.

Here are some examples of reflective writings:

A journal requires you to write weekly entries throughout a semester. May require you to base your reflection on course content.
A learning diary is similar to a journal, but may require group participation. The diary then becomes a place for you to communicate in writing with other group members.
A logbook is often used in disciplines based on experimental work, such as science. You note down or 'log' what you have done. A log gives you an accurate record of a process and helps you reflect on past actions and make better decisions for future actions.
A reflective note is often used in law. A reflective note encourages you to think about your personal reaction to a legal issue raised in a course.
An essay diary can take the form of an annotated bibliography (where you examine sources of evidence you might include in your essay) and a critique (where you reflect on your own writing and research processes).
a peer review usually involves students showing their work to their peers for feedback.
A self-assessment task requires you to comment on your own work.

Metacognition Task

Asking students to look at their own errors on a past exam, and explain in their own words the correct answers, requires students to reflect on their work and thus discourages inappropriate reliance on outside sources (i.e., plagiarism).

Students can earn a certain number of points determined in advance by the instructor.

Bonus: This approach helps students develop metacognition, improve their learning, and make connections to their past class performance.

Research Paper

Because students develop a term paper over the quarter, submitting different parts of it (e.g., the introduction and thesis, the literature review) at different times, this approach minimizes the possibility that students will be able to plagiarize work.

In a progressive build project, each portion submitted is a low-stakes assessment and is graded separately.

Short, Weekly Papers

Instead of one longer paper due at the end of the quarter, assign shorter weekly papers.

Essay Exam

If possible, convert multiple-choice questions into a series of questions that require students to write an essay. Writing an essay, in which students synthesize and/or analyze course content in answer to an essay prompt, encourages academic integrity by eliciting higher-order thinking skills.

In the short essay version, students are given a series of questions that ask them to write one-to-two-paragraph responses, synthesizing course content.

Tailoring the essay questions to your course’s specific content encourages students to produce their own work, and discourages inappropriate reliance on outside sources (i.e., plagiarism).

To make it an equitable assessment, exams should be untimed.

Alternative Online Assignments

We are free to provide alternate online assignments that measure the student's mastery of the learning outcomes as a replacement of an exam. Within this framework, the instructor can produce a variety of assessments that achieve the same level of understanding of a student's mastery of a learning outcome as an exam. For example, an instructor can provide a set of prompts for students to write a critical reflection on what they learned in your class. and ask that their answers be submitted via Canvas or email.

Final Presentations

Use a Zoom session and ask students to share their screens. Students can simultaneously present and share any slides or visuals at the same time. Ask others to mute their computer microphones to minimize feedback noise. Log into the room ahead of time to be sure it is functional. You can schedule a zoom meeting in advance and invite attendees.

Additional Considerations

Once you have made changes to your course assessments, you may want to keep these suggestions in mind:

Communicate with students. Explain to students why you’re making changes. Let them know you view their learning as paramount, and want to give them every opportunity to succeed in your class, even when modifications are necessary.
Provide a model of the types of work you’re asking from them. If you are changing your assessment format from tests to short answer questions, for example, give students a model of the type of question they’ll receive as well as the type of response that is expected. This is especially important if students have been anticipating one type of exam that has now been changed.
Consider modifying your grading structure. Evaluate your changes to see if you will need to modify your grading structure. Consult with your department chairs to brainstorm on how this may affect your entire program.
DSPS Students - Please consider how these changes to your assessment system will impact your students that require accommodations from DSPS. Review any accommodations for your students and work with the DSPS office to ensure you are meeting the require accommodations.

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