More About Testing

Online and F2F Class Assessments:

Assessment for learning: If the purpose of an assessment is to find out what students already know so that you can plan what to include in your lecture and develop appropriate learning activities, then create a pre-test to assess existing knowledge. This kind of assessment will let you know what your students already know, and how much they know. This is also sometimes called a needs assessment, or gap assessment. Begin by defining what students need to know at the end of the learning experience. After you have done the initial assessment, review the end goal and look at the gap, or difference, in students’ existing knowledge and the end goal. Then create learning objectives to help reach the end goal. You must then create learning activities that close the gap.

Assessment of learning: If the purpose of giving quizzes, tests, and exams is to test the knowledge the student has retained, then you need to create assessments that do so. If you give quizzes, tests, and exams that are open ended and allow students to take as much time as they want, then you are not really testing. Best practice suggests putting a time limit on any assessment.

Open Book or Closed Book? This is a tough question to answer. Educators cannot agree on which one is better. Some instructors have said that when they tell students the exam is open book, students tend not to study. On the other hand, Open Book exams can be valid if they are timed tests. If you don’t have a time limit on the test, then all you’re really doing is seeing how fat students can flip pages.

By their very nature, tests in Distance Learning courses allow students to use their books in answering questions. Therefore, it is important to limit the time the test is available (students can usually take the test within a 48 hour window that the test is available), and put a time limit on the test itself.

How much time?
For multiple choice questions, the general rule is one minute per question. In online courses, it is a good idea to give 5-10 extra minutes because students also have to click through several times in order to get to the next question.

For essay exams think about how much you want the student to write. At the undergraduate level a paragraph is usually sufficient. Allowing 20 minutes to write a coherent paragraph is generous.

If you want students to write several pages, then it might just be better to require an essay assignment rather than a test.

Strategies for Helping Students Be Successful on Tests and Quizzes:
Create a practice test. Let students know that the “real” test will be very similar to the practice exam.

Create a study guide that lets students know what will be covered on the quiz or test.