September  23, 2021, 4:00pm-5:00pm

https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/95944290798

Public exam strategies: Low-tech methods for college exams that are deeper, more transparent, and provoke less student anxiety

 College assessments are a focal point for performance, breakthroughs, mastery… and also anxiety, attrition, and destruction of personal identity. Writing these exams is a daunting task for which few faculty have deep training or enough time and support. This perilous situation was brought into the open during the Spring of 2020, when forced online teaching pushed a generation of student exams online. Traditional assessment methods were stressed in ways that might have been previously below the surface.  Within this crisis is a forced opportunity to revisit traditional practices. Assessments can invigorate students to their best performance in ways that bring more students into the fold of academic learning. Issues of grammar and language that disproportionately impact students from diverse backgrounds can be improved with help from those very students. The cognitive level of the questions we ask, even for multiple choice exams, can be deepened. This seminar will discuss some of the background literature, the research evidence around public exams, and then focus on examples of techniques that have helped STEM instructors without increasing the precious time needed to write the assessments.