Alternatives to Traditional Tests
Culminating Assignment
If you have the capacity to evaluate and provide feedback on a culminating assignment, you might consider one of these options:
- Case study analysis
- Poster
- Infographic
- Video
Authentic Assessments
Authentic assessments engage students’ intrinsic motivation by connecting to personal interests, real-world application, and current events. Research shows that when students are personally interested in their learning, they are much less likely to cheat. Additionally, authentic assessments are often specific to a time, place, person, and or event, which means they are less likely to be able to be copied from previous semesters or purchased from online sources. Indiana University Bloomington’s page about authentic assessment is helpful.
Transparent Assignment Design
As always, but especially in remote teaching, students will have better success if you’re explicit about the details of the assignment and what you expect them to learn from it. Transparent assignment design is a process that clarifies an assignment’s purpose, your expectations, and your grading metrics.
Several smaller assignments
One of the benefits of replacing the exam with smaller assessments is the regular feedback students can get from you to guide their learning. When planning to replace an exam with smaller assignments, it’s helpful to review the learning goals of your course. Clarity about learning goals, and the extent to which they’ve been met, can inform your decisions about the appropriate assignments to replace the exam e.g., a series of lower-stakes quizzes, case studies, or student presentations (live or asynchronous).