At the UW Teaching and Learning Conference, I spoke about engaging students in their assessments by incorporating contributions from those students.

Abstract:

How can we better engage our students with their assessments? The use of student-generated questions (SGQs) or student-generated tests (SGTs) have been examined in recent years as demonstrated by Lam (2014). This approach is recognized to promote students’ active participation in the assessment process and to potentially provide students with timely feedback before misconceptions can be formed. However, this practice can have negative consequences on students’ learning. Students may be inclined to merely memorize the question bank of SGQs when studying for the corresponding assessment, as mentioned in Papinczak et al. (2012), thereby favouring surface-level learning instead of deep-level learning. Yet several variations of SGQs/SGTs exist that should also be considered.

Building assessments based on contributions from students – not only self-generated questions – is a beneficial way to foster student engagement in their assessments. Two examples of assessments implementing this idea in statistics courses will be shared. The first example from a third-year course focuses on survey questions about the course that are generated by students and subsequently compiled into a questionnaire which students critique later in the term. The second example from a second-year course involves an assignment on data analysis where the students themselves provided the data to be analyzed. Many topics will be discussed including setup, structure, consent, and informal student feedback.

Keywords:

Assessment, contribution, student

References:

Lam, R. (2014). Can student-generated test materials support learning?. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 43, 95-108.

Papinczak, T., Peterson, R., Babri, A. S., Ward, K., Kippers, V., & Wilkinson, D. (2012). Using student-generated questions for student-centred assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 37(4), 439–452. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2010.538666

Session Takeaways:

The main takeaways from this session include:

1. The basic idea of self-generated questions or tests can be adapted to different versions of “assessments based on student contributions” that promote student engagement.
2. The many advantages and disadvantages for both students and instructors when creating assessments that rely on student contributions. For instance, one potential disadvantage for the instructor is that the assessment cannot be created too far in advance (e.g., at the start of the term) since it relies on the current cohort of students taking the class.