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- Closely connect written assessments to specific course readings, key concepts, and material discussed in prior in-person class meetings. Articulate the connection for learners.
- Connect the questions of the course to the questions that students might have about their lives, the real people that they know or encounter, or help them to develop their own authentic questions that the course can help them to answer.
- Emphasize learning instead of performance.
- Design many low-stakes assessments instead of one or two high-stakes assessments.
- Build formative assessments into regular classroom encounters so that students can develop an accurate assessment of their own knowledge and understanding of course content (metacognition).
- Change the exam format. For example, substitute a small number of short-answer questions or tasks for a larger set of multiple-choice questions.
- Use tools in Blackboard to randomize questions and answer order.
- Assign small groups of students to complete an assessment task together following best practices for effective group work.
- Create video assignments in which individual students feature themselves going about an assessment task and narrating how they do so, e.g. making a clay model or solving a word problem. Assign students to small groups. Have the students in each group share and assess each member’s video using a specific rubric. Best practices for rubric design are available from the University’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment.
- Try out a new form of assessment or two. Have students design a poster presentation or an infographic, for example.
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