Assessing Student Learning with Exams Karen Kortz Early Career Workshop 2014 Connections, Extensions, Opportunities: Concurrent Sessions

Why do you use exams to assess student learning?

Format of Exam Individual, group, two-stage (individual and group) Open book, open notes, cheat sheet, closed everything In class, take home Paper, scantron, computer Oral, written, performance

Different Types of Exam Questions Objective Multiple choice True/False Matching Fill in blank Calculations Subjective Short answer (write paragraph, draw sketch, fill in table, …) Essay Calculations What else?

Objective (e.g. multiple choice) or Subjective (e.g. short answer)? Difficult and time consuming to construct Difficult and time consuming to grade Efficiently measure higher order cognitive skills Versatility in measuring all levels of cognitive ability Depends on student's reading ability and instructor's writing ability Tests student's ability to compose and present an answer Wide sampling of content or objectives May lead to favoring simple recall of facts Subject to bias on the part of the grader

Deciding on the Types of Questions What are course goals? What is your time balance between writing questions vs. grading exams? Do you want to reuse questions? What is your class size? Do you want to test additional skills (e.g. writing)? What have you given students practice doing? Do you want to cover a wide range of topics? Can you grade impartially and fairly?

General Tips for Writing Good Exam Questions Base questions on course goals and class goals Emphasize what you value in class Avoid trivia Use clear, unambiguous wording (appropriate for the audience) Avoid negatives Have someone else read through them Write down ideas for exam questions after each class

Evaluating Questions How can this exam question be improved or changed? Evidence supporting plate tectonics includes a. the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes b. the age of the sea floor c. the fit of the continental coastlines (e.g. Africa and South America) d. a and b e. all of the above

Evaluating Questions How can this exam question be improved or changed? How have the presence of oceans on Earth influenced our greenhouse effect?

Write Your Own Questions Keep in mind: Your course goals What question format works best in your course

Ideas to Get Started Can you turn a short answer question into a multiple choice question? Convert text to an illustration and vice versa Ask a question that is answered by picking/marking a location on a diagram or photo What is the best analogy? What term doesn’t belong on this list? Before and after questions (e.g. predict outcome) Organize information into a table Rank the order, size, frequency, etc. of phenomena “Some people say that [either a correct or incorrect statement]. Do you agree? Explain your answer using at least 3 arguments or examples”