Assessment in Covid times

Most of the colleges in India, conduct a final exam to assess student learning. Covid has put constraints on large gatherings to take an exam. It is a good reason to get out of the entrenched system of final exams, external examiners and all its trappings. Ideally we should be focusing on continuous assessment by the teacher rather than depending on a one time effort to assess semester-long learning.

Take a moment to think through why you need timed final exams. There could be a variety of reasons. Competitive timed exams with invigilation have a primarily gatekeeping objective. A similar reason I have heard multiple times at the university/college level is – keeping sanctity of education or the degree.

If we agree that the primary aim of the whole exercise of a degree program is learning to think/do/communicate X, who do we assume or believe is responsible for the learning? The ‘sanctity of education’ discourse and need to monitor exams closely, presumes that the institution and the teachers are responsible for student learning. If you believe that the students are responsible for their own learning, you might not need monitored exams.

Over the years, many teachers have commented that students have a short term objective to get good grades rather than giving importance to learning and it is their responsibility to goad students on the path of long term benefit away from short-termism. If you believe this, you can think of learning as a shared responsibility and inculcate the culture in your classroom from the first day of class. Design assignments that would push for learning rather than performance. Grade for effort, rather than right or wrong answers.

This is a conversation you need to have with yourself at the beginning of the semester and plan your assessment strategy based on it.

Just a note: If students want to cheat rather than learn, they will. Fixed and strict time limits, video monitoring of students while writing the exam etc establish the culture of teachers being responsible for learning and provides more impetus for students to find ways to skirt the constraints. Rather than motivation for learning, these methods end up being punitive for students who do not have a stable internet connection, separate room, and a separate robust device to take the exam on.

Alternatives to monitored exams
Open book test: If you would like to know how well students can apply something they learnt, the best way is to give them a problem solving assignment that cannot be completed by copying from the textbook or easily googled. An open book test with a lenient time frame gives importance to higher order learning than rote learning and makes sure that the most disadvantaged students are not penalised.

Final paper, presentation, or a product: Works well if you can break it into multiple short assignments throughout the semester leading to the end product. This scaffolds the process of creating the end product, especially important for students who might balk at a lengthy writing assignment or students who have never worked on a semester long project who might falter at time management skill. This assignment gives you a glimpse into the process as well as the end product making the grading more meaningful.

For more ideas see this list from Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University.

Continuous Assessment
Rather than thinking about how to move the final exam and invigilation online, it might be a good time to embrace continuous assessment. You can start by converting your final product or exam into a semester long process as mentioned above. If your subject does not lend itself to a final product or the students are not prepared for it you can start small.

A simple addition of a weekly homework for attendance grade mentioned in the previous note can start you on this path. The homework can be a simple reflection exercise. For example, write the main point of today’s discussion or lecture; list 3 takeaways from the session today. Another of my favourite exercise is – list skills, techniques or concepts that need more work this week, What do you plan to do about it. The plan could be self study, practice problem solving, ask for help from peers or time for office hours. These exercises teach students how to take responsibility for their own learning. That for me is the most important skill they can learn than any ‘content to be covered’ for a subject.