It was always the same scenario. I’d be feeling a great sense of accomplishment because I had spent hours grading a set of English papers—painstakingly labeling errors and writing…
Educational Assessment
Examining the Benefits of Cumulative Tests and Finals
November 13, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
With the academic year nearly over and final exams upon us, it’s a good time to consider how we assess student knowledge in our courses. Cumulative finals are still…
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In some types of assignments, it’s the process that’s more important than the product. Journals and online discussion exchanges, even homework problems, are good examples. Students are thinking and…
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Dropping Scores: The Case for Hope
October 22, 2015 Nicholas F. Skinner PhD
In “Calculating Final Course Grades: What About Dropping Scores or Offering a Replacement?” (The Teaching Professor March 2014), the editor notes that “some students ... assume that course content…
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Calculating Final Course Grades: What about Dropping Scores or Offering a Replacement?
October 20, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Instructors commonly cope with a missed test or failed exam (this may also apply to quizzes) by letting students drop their lowest score. Sometimes the lowest score is replaced…
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What? Students writing their own exams? Yes, that’s exactly what these marketing faculty members had their students do. “The Student-Written Exam method is an open book and notes take-home…
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Provide ‘Feedforward’ with Exemplars
October 1, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
There is growing interest in the pedagogical literature in something called feedforward. It is, as the name implies, the opposite of feedback, which provides input after the fact. Feedforward…
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Student Ratings—Reminders and Suggestions
September 16, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Recent research verifies that when looking at small differences in student ratings, faculty and administrators (in this case, department chairs) draw unwarranted conclusions. That’s a problem when ratings are…
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Exploring the Advantages of Rubrics
September 9, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
“I don’t believe in giving students rubrics,” a faculty member told me recently. “They’re another example of something that waters down education.” I was telling him about a study…
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Using Grading Policies to Promote Learning
August 26, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
I just finished putting together some materials on grading policies for a series of Magna 20-Minute Mentor programs, and I am left with several important take-aways on the powerful…
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Is this situation at all like what you’re experiencing? Class sizes are steadily increasing, students need more opportunities to practice critical thinking skills, and you need to keep the…
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In Blended and Flipped Learning, Educational Assessment
Four Assessment Strategies for the Flipped Learning Environment
August 10, 2015 Robert Talbert, PhD
Flipped learning environments offer unique opportunities for student learning, as well as some unique challenges. By moving direct instruction from the class group space to the individual students’ learning…
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Students perform poorly in our courses for a variety of reasons. Here are some students you’ve likely encountered over the years, as well as a few ideas on the…
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A colleague of mine recently engaged with a new technology tool that has changed her life. She purchased and became a vigilant user of the fitness band. This wristband…
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In Blended and Flipped Learning, Educational Assessment
Flipping Assessment: Making Assessment a Learning Experience
June 15, 2015 Susan Spangler PhD
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’re already aware that flipped instruction has become the latest trend in higher education classrooms. And for good reason. As it…
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In Educational Assessment, Effective Teaching Strategies
Using Student-Generated Reading Questions to Uncover Knowledge Gaps
March 30, 2015 Erika G. Offerdahl PhD and Lisa Montplaisir PhD
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Student-Generated Reading Questions: Diagnosing Student Thinking with Diverse Formative Assessments, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 42 (1), 29-38. The Teaching Professor…
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A Grade Forecasting Strategy for Students
February 6, 2015 Michael J. Armstrong PhD
Optimism is generally a good thing, but it can sometimes interfere with learning. Some students are overly optimistic about their learning progress and anticipated course grades, with weaker students…
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Ten Tips for More Efficient and Effective Grading
February 2, 2015 Victoria Smith PhD and Stephanie Maher Palenque
Many instructors dread grading, not just because grading takes up a sizable amount of time and can prove itself a tedious task, but also because instructors struggle with grading…
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In Course Design, Educational Assessment
It’s Not Too Early to Begin Preparing Students for Cumulative Finals
January 23, 2015 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
There are a couple of reasons why students don’t like comprehensive finals. First, they’re more work. Rather than four weeks’ worth of material to know and understand, there’s a…
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Is Praise Undermining Student Motivation?
January 5, 2015 John Orlando, PhD
We think of praise as a good thing, even admirable. Don’t we praise our kids when they show us the drawing that they made in art class? To be…
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The goal of any well-constructed test is to test students’ expertise on a topic and not their test-taking skills. We need to eliminate as many flaws in our questions…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Alternative Assessment Methods for the Online Classroom
October 3, 2014 Rob Kelly
Tests and quizzes are often the primary means of assessing online learner performance; however, as Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt, online instructors and coauthors of numerous online learning books,…
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In Blended and Flipped Learning, Course Design, Educational Assessment
Formative Assessment: The Secret Sauce of Blended Success
July 23, 2014 Oliver Dreon, PhD
A few weeks ago, a colleague emailed me about some trouble she was having with her first attempt at blended instruction. She had created some videos to pre-teach a…
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I have a confession to make. I was wrong. You see, I once thought that teaching was lecturing, and I thought that because that is how my graduate mentors…
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Assessing What Your Students Know, Want to Know, and Have Learned
June 13, 2014 Thomas Dyer and John Steele
Measuring student success is a top priority to ensure the best possible student outcomes. Through the years instructors have implemented new and creative strategies to assess student learning in…
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I’m “reflecting” a lot these days. My tenure review is a few months away, and it’s time for me to prove (in one fell swoop) that my students are…
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In Educational Assessment, Effective Teaching Strategies
A Quiz Design that Motivates Students
December 19, 2013 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Many faculty members use quizzes to keep students prepared and present in class. The approach often tends to be punitive, however, motivating students by extrinsic means. Karen Braun and…
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Students, Studying, and Multiple-Choice Questions
November 22, 2013 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Multiple-choice questions are not the pariah of all test questions. They can make students think and measure their mastery of material. But they can also do little more than…
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When you are a math teacher you are often faced with the dilemma of whether to assign partial credit to a problem that is incorrect, but that demonstrates some…
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In Course Design, Educational Assessment
A Different Kind of Final
October 15, 2013 Karinda Barrett PhD
Last semester I implemented a different kind of final exam. In the past I have used the standard multiple-choice and short-answer exams. I was thinking about making a change…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Using Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Proactive Approach for Online Learning
September 23, 2013 Emily Bergquist and Rick Holbeck
There are two main forms of assessment often used within the online classroom. Both formative and summative assessments evaluate student learning and assist instructors in guiding instructional planning and…
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We give students exams for two reasons: First, we have a professional responsibility to verify their mastery of the material. Second, we give exams because they promote learning. Unfortunately,…
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The guidelines suggested below propose how critical thinking skills can be assessed “scientifically” in psychology courses and programs. The authors begin by noting something about psychology faculty that is…
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Assessing Assessment: Five Keys to Success
April 22, 2013 Vickie Kelly, EdD
There are those in the academic community who dread hearing and reading about assessment. But aside from the mandatory reporting required by credentialing and accreditation agencies, how can faculty…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Frequent, Low-Stakes Grading: Assessment for Communication, Confidence
April 18, 2013 Scott Warnock PhD
After going out for tacos, our students can review the restaurant on a website. They watch audiences reach a verdict on talent each season on American Idol. When they…
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Assessment as an Opportunity for Developing Independent Thinking Skills in Students
April 1, 2013 Katherine Robertson PhD
The liberal arts college where I teach recently underwent review for accreditation. Like many other colleges and universities, we were criticized for our lack of assessment. Faculty resistance, it…
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In Educational Assessment, Teaching and Learning
The Effects of Collaborative Testing
March 1, 2013 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Although letting students work together on exam questions is still not a common instructional practice, it has been used more than might be expected and in a variety of…
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“We ought to be up to the task of figuring out what it is that our students know by the end of four years at college that they did…
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Critical Thinking: Definitions and Assessments
January 3, 2013 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Despite almost universal agreement that critical thinking needs to be taught in college, now perhaps more than ever before, there is much less agreement on definitions and dimensions. “Critical…
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We’ve all had conversations with students who want effort counted in their grade: “But I tried so hard ... I studied for hours ... I am really working in…