October 13 Day 219: Examining Exams

I participated in UW Seattle’s CTL Teaching Remotely Pop-Up on “Timed Exams and Alternatives” while giving a timed assessment in my Calculus II class. To be clear, the assessment became available Monday at 6 pm (after class was completed) and must be finished before Wednesday at 1:30 pm. Only two students were actually taking the exam during the panel discussion.

Unlike Canvas “assignments” where you set a synchronous availability window, Canvas “quizzes” can limit the amount of time that a student can interact with the quiz once it is opened. Because the assessment is being given outside of class time, this allows students to complete the assessment at the most convenient time for their busy lives. In mathematics, process is as important as the final answer. So I have students upload supporting documentation as their response to the final question (with a secondary “safety net assignment” as a place to upload the file for those that accidentally run out the clock before successfully submitting. )

But I wasn’t at the “Timed Exams and Alternatives” to talk about timed exams. I was there to talk about alternatives…mostly oral exams. I was asked to share my rubrics. And should people visit the blog looking for them, let me point out the relevant posts:

• March 16 Day 8: Personal Mantra and the Second Wave (the moment that I started looking for alternatives. )
• June 10 Day 94: Finals. Part I.
• June 11 Day 95: Finals. Part II. (contains individual oral final rubric–still in need of refinement)
• October 3 Day 209: Oral Fixation (contains group oral rubric–improved over previous.)
• October 7 Day 213: Speaking of Math…
• October 9 Day 215: One Down….

When the recorded session is transcripted and available, I will also link it here if you are interested. Thanks to all those that participated especially co-panelist Jennifer Doherty, UWS Biology and organizer extraordinaire Beth Kalikoff. I learned bunches from them.

Updated 11/5/2020: The link is up. Timed Exams & Alternatives Teaching Remotely Pop-up seminar video recording, featuring Jenny Quinn and Jennifer Doherty, Biology