evidence for collaboration

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Group Exams and Quizzes: Design Options to Consider

Although still not at all that widely used, there’s long-standing interest in letting students work together on quizzes or exams. Upon first hearing about the approach, teachers’ initial response is almost always negative. Here are the most common objections.

  • Grades are measures of individual mastery of
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students working on group assignment

My Students Don’t Like Group Work

Students don’t always like working in groups. Ann Taylor, an associate professor of chemistry at Wabash College, had a class that was particularly vocal in their opposition. She asked for their top 10 reasons why students don’t want to work in groups and

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Although still not at all that widely used, there’s long-standing interest in letting students work together on quizzes or exams. Upon first hearing about the approach, teachers’ initial response is almost always negative. Here are the most common objections. On the other hand, those who do allow group collaboration on exams and quizzes may respond to the objections with a corresponding set of set of advantages associated with their use.

Group/Collaborative Exam Design Options

The faculty who use group exam and quiz options also answer the concerns with a variety of different design options. Many of these options address the common objections mentioned earlier or work around them in ways that protect the integrity of assessment experiences. If students change their original answer but mark their new answer with a different color ink, during the debrief, the issue of who you believe and when you trust yourself can be raised in the context whether the changed answers were correct or wrong. If it’s an essay exam, the collaboration may occur before students start writing. See Shindler (2004) for an example.

Group/Collaborative Exam and Quiz Resources

Here’s a collection of references that showcase these design variations and the range of disciplines where collaborative testing has been used. Clinton, D. B., and Kohlmeyer III, J. M. (2005). The effects of group quizzes on performance and motivation to learn. Journal of Accounting Education, 23 (2), 96-116. Cortright, R. N., Collins, H. L., Rodenbaugh, D. W., and DiCarlo, S. E., (2003). Student retention of course content is improved by collaborative-group testing. Advances in Physiology Education, 27 (3), 102-108. Hoke, M. M., and Robbins, L. K., (2005). The impact of active learning on nursing students’ clinical success. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 32 (4), 348-355. Gilley, B. H., and Clarkston, B., (2014). Collaborative testing: Evidence of learning in a controlled in-class study of undergraduate students. Journal of College Science Teaching, 43 (3), 83-91. Giuliodori, M. J., Lujan, H. L., and DiCarolo, S. E., (2009). Student interaction characteristics during collaborative group testing. Advances in Physiology Education, 33 (Summer), 24-29. Knierim, K., Turner, H., and Davis, R. K., 2015. Two-stage exams improve student learning in an introductory geology course: Logistics, attendances and grades. Journal of Geoscience Education, 63 (2), 157-164. Kapitanoff, S. H., (200). Collaborative testing: Cognitive and interpersonal processes related to enhanced test Performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10 (1), 56-70. Leight, H., Saunders, C., Calkins, R., and Withers, M. (2012). Collaborative testing improves performance but not content retention in a large-enrollment introductory biology class. Cell Biology Education—Life Science Education, 11 (December), 392-303. LoGiudice, A. B., Pachai, A. A., and Kim, J. A., (2015). Testing together: When do student learn more through collaborative tests? Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1 (4), 377-389. Lusk, M., and Conklin, L. (2003). Collaborative testing to promote learning. Journal of Nursing Education, 42 (3), 121-124. Pandey, C., and Kapitanoff, S., (2011). The influence of anxiety and quality of interaction on collaborative test performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 12 (3), 163-174. Rao, S. P., Collins, H. L, and DiCarlo, S. E. (2002). Collaborative testing enhances student learning. Advances in Physiology Education, 26 (1), 37-41. Russo, A., and Warren, S. H., (1999). Collaborative test taking. College Teaching, 47 (1), 18-20. Shindler, J. V., (2004). “Greater than the sum of the parts?” Examining the soundness of collaborative exams in teacher education courses. Innovative Higher Education, 28 (4), 273-283. Slusser, S. R., and Erickson, R. J., (2006). Group quizzes: An extension of the collaborative learning process. Teaching Sociology, 34 (July), 249-262. Sroug, M. C., Miller, H. B., Witherow, D. S., and Carson, S., (2013). Assessment of a novel group-centered testing scheme in an upper-level undergraduate molecular biotechnology course. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 41 (4), 232-241. Weimer, M. Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013. (see pages 81-83) Woody, W. D., Woody, L. K., and Bromley, S., (2008). Anticipated group versus individual examinations: A classroom comparison. Teaching of Psychology, 35 (1), 13-17.