Alternative Assessment Strategies

Traditional exams with multiple-choice, short-answer or essay questions are commonly used for many courses. They can be administered and graded automatically through Canvas, which makes them appealing for many online instructors. If you want to create a more structured testing atmosphere or add an extra layer of security, these traditional exams can be proctored.

You can use the item bank feature in Canvas to create a large repository of questions, which allows you to create exams that pull randomly from the bank. Randomization helps promote academic integrity because students in the course will have different versions of the same exam. This works especially well with multiple-choice questions, but it may not be right for other question types or certain types of content.

Traditional exams are just one way to assess student learning. They play an important part in many courses but may not work for some. In some cases, it may not even be possible to use a traditional exam to gauge what your students have learned.

"What would students be saying and doing if they truly understood what they were learning?"

- Dr. John Orlando
"How to Effectively Assess Online Learning"

A great way to alternatively approach assessments is to have students produce original evidence to show they have mastered the content. These types of action-based assessments are great, because you can model them after the products or processes that students will encounter in the work world after university.

Action-based assessments also help ensure academic integrity. It is much more difficult for students to cheat on an assessment that requires them to merge what they’ve learned in the course with elements from their own life or from current events. It is also harder for them to use artificial intelligence tools to create quality products in alternative assessments than it is for many traditional written assessments. These strategies gain more reliability when scoring rubrics are used to evaluate them.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer or best assessment method. Each instructor must determine what type of assessment will best demonstrate mastery of the course objectives. The course content and learning objectives should guide how you assess what your students have learned. As you are planning assessments, consider a few things:

Is your assessment able to accurately and fairly show you whether your students have mastered the learning objectives?
Is there a way to have students take an action or produce a product that models how they will use the knowledge they learned in the course once they make their way into the workplace?
How can you craft the assessment in a way that will minimize opportunities for academic integrity violations?
Will you realistically be able to provide timely, robust feedback to your students using the chosen methods?

In your course, there may be no equivalent alternative to the traditional paper-based assessments. After considering whether alternative assessment types would be beneficial for your students, you may find that your reflection ultimately justifies that what you are currently doing is the best assessment option for your students.

"Because reliability is not fully attainable for any given method, it is important that instructors use a variety of assessment methods."

- Dr. John Orlando
Orlando, J. (2011). "How to Effectively Assess Online Learning." Magna Publications.

Each instructor must determine what type of assessment will best demonstrate mastery of the course objectives. In your course, there may be no equivalent alternative to the traditional paper-based assessments. However, I urge you to consider alternative assessment types for your online course even if this reflection ultimately justifies that what you are currently doing is the best assessment option for your students.

A common recommendation for new online instructors is to incorporate a variety of assessment strategies. The traditional midterm and final paper-based exams will always be appropriate methods for assessing comprehensive student understandings. But instead of relying entirely on the midterm and final to assess student mastery of the material, give them multiple outlets to express their knowledge. Not only will you gain a broader understanding of what your students are learning, you will be incorporating research-based teaching practices for how to best assess student learning.

References
Orlando, J. (2011). How to Effectively Assess Online Learning. Magna Publications.

Examples of Action-Based Assessments

To discover what type of assessment will work, you must refer back to your objectives. What do the students need to do in order to demonstrate they have mastered the material and have met the objectives of the course? After this type of reflection, many instructors realize that regurgitating factual information on a paper-based exam is not accurately assessing the students. So what are some alternative assessment options?

Video Presentations—These are the online equivalent to an oral exam. Insert an essay-style prompt in a quiz and have the student record a video response.

Simulations—Students can demonstrate their understanding of specific skills, such as how to code a software application.

Tutorials/Lesson Plans—Preparing a lesson to teach to classmates is a great way for students to demonstrate their content comprehension. Students can video themselves teaching about the concept. These can be shared with the class or just submitted privately for a grade.

Self-Reflection—Students summarize their understanding of the content and provide specific evidence to support their writing. They can also write about their learning journey, which engages them in the beneficial process of metacognition.

Portfolios—Students can compile a digital portfolio of artifacts that demonstrate their understanding of a concept or process. A wide variety of artifact types may be used, and students can employ great creative freedom. This is also an excellent way to model a real-world skill, because many disciplines require a portfolio of some kind.

Interviews or Debates—Students can partner up and interview one another about a topic. They can take turns role-playing the interviewer and the subject matter expert. This could also be formatted as a debate where students pick sides to support. Recording abilities of video conferencing software such as Zoom makes this type of assessment easy to produce.