Assess Students’ Knowledge Through a Variety of Methods

To the extent that it is possible, it is helpful to use a variety of strategies to assess students’ knowledge such as projects, oral presentations, multiple-choice exams, quizzes, research papers, etc. The possibilities of doing this depend on considerations of academic integrity, rigor, purpose, practicality, class size, etc.

With this in mind, here are a few examples that professors have shared:

• In an English class, a professor gave students an option of either writing a traditional research paper or writing a fictional story that applied principles taught in the class.
• Another professor in history offered students the choice of doing an oral presentation with a defense or taking a written exam.
• In a science class, the professor allowed students to choose between two or three experiments to conduct.

previous next