Creating Assessement
Giving students different types of test we see what they have learn.
Hi Geoffrey, Thanks for your post to the forum. You shared some interesting observations!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I am in a similar situation as Danielle and have found that by varying the types of questions I am able to more easily assess how much they have learned. I have had issues with time as well, but I have also found that certain students will take five minutes on an exam that another student will take 45 minutes. There does not necessarily seem to be any correlation between time of exam and grade (although I have seen that fast test-takers can miss "easy" questions, while slow test-takers tend to talk themselves out of the correct response). I actually enjoy creating quizzes and exams and am continually challenging myself to create better assessments.
I teach a general education course at a technical college, thus many of my students do not strongly care about my topic. In order to really test them, I use a wide variety of questions, such as multiple choice, true/false, and short essay all in one exam. I also review the exam beforehand.
The hardest thing I find isn't writing the test, but estimating how long it will take the students to complete it. What I think will take 45 minutes, can take only 15 minutes for everyone to finish or 1 hour.
