Want to Reduce Guessing and Cheating While Making Students Happier? Give More Exams!

Abstract

It is almost universally agreed that more frequent formative assessment (homework, clicker questions, practice tests, etc.) leads to better student performance and generally better course evaluations.1 There is, however, only anecdotal evidence that the same would be true for more frequent summative assessment (exams). There maybe many arguments against giving more exams, including the general “pain” associated with examinations, as well as reduced teaching time, since classroom sessions are dedicated to exams rather than lecturing. We present evidence that increasing the number of exams in fact does lead to better learning success, less cheating and guessing on homework, and better student course evaluations.

The Impact of Course Structure on eText Use in Large-Lecture Introductory-Physics Courses

“…Improved performance and attitudes have been shown to accompany changes from traditional to frequent exam formats [2], as well as in the replacement of traditional lectures with active-learning activities [3,4]. Similar gains have been shown to accompany the replacement of physical-text pre-lecture activities with online Media Modules [5,6].…”

“…We hypothesize this to be a meaningful signal in understanding student perceptions of eText, e.g., after the first exam students see less value in regular reading. Such signals are apparent in preliminary analysis of lecture slide accesses in similar courses from MSU [2], as well as eTexts in open-online courses of varying format [14,15].…”

“…2 depicts the fractional usage of the eText in each course via complimentary cumulative distributions (CCDFs). 2 We indicate the mean fraction of eText accesses in each course via a single filled circle on each CCDF, e.g., the mean fraction accessed in the MIT course is ≈ 0.80. Supplementary courses (black) have the lowest eText use (mean access ≈ 0.10) with little variation among the courses.…”

“…Supplementary courses (black) have the lowest eText use (mean access ≈ 0.10) with little variation among the courses. Reformed courses (blue) have the highest overall use (mean accesses ≈ 0.80), but with greater 2 We choose to plot CCDFs of unique eText page accesses as it allows all data to appear in a single plot. Each CCDF is read as the fraction of students f N accessing greater than f e fraction of available eText pages.…”

Flipping Content to Improve Student Examination Performance in a Pharmacogenomics Course

“…The study design included elements that comport with studies that demonstrate the positive impact of active-learning practices, including the role of increased assessments and active learning on improved student examination performance. [13][14][15] This project detailed how instructional design and instructional practices that emphasize data-driven continuous improvement through reflective practice may contribute to improved teaching and learning outcomes.…”