Assessment Case Study - Student-Generated Exams in Kinesiology
Ashley Weleschuk, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning
July 4, 3018
“My focus is active learning and keeping students engaged, even in a big group.” – Dr. Larry Katz
Background
Dr. Larry Katz is a professor in the department of Kinesiology. He teaches many courses, including KNES 213: Introduction to Research in Kinesiology. This trailer introduces the course and some of its topics to students. Many students start the course without knowing the scope of research that exists in the field. They are not always engaged at first, so Larry includes as much active learning as possible. His goal is to get students excited about research. Students answer clicker questions in class, and create custom sets of data that they can analyze. Even the course exams are student-centred and created through active learning.
Methods
In large classes like this one, multiple-choice exams are used as an efficient testing method. Larry gives students a full lecture on how to design and write effective multiple-choice questions. He explains their purpose for learning as well as how to formulate feedback. Students get to learn not only how they are assessed but why they are assessed and the thinking that goes into their main question style. This lecture is important for one of the course assessments: creating potential exam questions.
Students use a software called MakeQuiz to create questions. The course concepts are listed in a grid within the software, and each student is responsible for writing multiple-choice questions on three different concepts. They must provide feedback for each answer choice, even the correct one. There are usually around 125 students in the class, which means a total of 375 questions are generated. Most of them are well done. Larry selects the best questions and includes them on three in-class quizzes and on the final exam. There are 50 total questions on the final exam and 40 of them are student-generated. Larry changes the order of answer choices so that students cannot just memorize them. They also do not know which specific questions will be tested, but they can build their confidence by practicing on all of the available questions. This is an example of peer learning, since students can see what their classmates see as the most important concepts in the course and compare that to their ideas.
Students are motivated to create good questions because they want their questions to be on a test. All of the questions are available for students to review throughout the course. Those who put in time and effort into writing and answering questions can feel confident and do well on the exams. Both writing and answering questions is an effective studying method.
Outcomes
MakeQuiz is a useful program for ensuring that students get ample feedback from multiple-choice exams. Although multiple-choice questions are popular in large classes, it can be difficult to ensure that students are actually learning. Including as much feedback as possible is essential to making multiple-choice questions meaningful. The software provides a full summary of the questions at the end of a section so students can see how well they did overall and can re-read feedback if necessary. Larry tends to be impressed with the quality of student questions. They are able to be insightful and thoughtful in their questions and feedback.
Larry always asks for student feedback at the end of the semester using his own surveys along with the standard USRIs. He asks students if they think he should keep, modify, or drop the different course activities. Usually, students like making their own questions and answering questions written by peers. They also like how much feedback is available.
Students leave the course with a much broader understanding of what research in kinesiology encompasses and all of the different areas that can be studied. They also have improved studying and exam-taking skills that they can apply in future courses. Larry feels that his goals for students are accomplished and that students move forward in the program with skills that will be help them be successful.