The authors describe a collaborative group-testing strategy implemented and studied in undergraduate science classes. This project investigated how the assessment strategy relates to student performance and perceptions about collaboration and focused on two sections of an undergraduate biotechnology course taught in separate semesters.

Hailey Schnorr has spent years peering into the bedrooms, kitchens, and dorm rooms of students via Webcam. In her job proctoring online tests for universities, she has learned to focus mainly on students' eyes. Ms. Schnorr works for ProctorU, a company hired by universities to police the integrity of their online courses. ProctorU is part of a…

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore student perceptions and outcomes surrounding the use of a labor and delivery simulation as a midterm exam in a maternal-newborn lecture course. An exploratory case study design was used to gain a holistic view of the simulation experience. Data from focus groups, written debriefings, simulation…

As noted in "Beyond Crossroads" (AMATYC, 2006), for today's students, learning mathematics is participatory and depends on the active involvement of students (p. 53). The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics shares the point of view that the teaching and learning of mathematics should include giving students ample opportunity to think…

Team-based learning (TBL) has been shown to improve many aspects of student learning, but no previous research has systematically examined the effects of group exams on English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in university classrooms. This study is a small-scale action research examining the role of students' English language status in…

Questionnaires administered manually can cause surreptitious peer pressure on the candidate to finish when 'the others" have completed theirs, forcing students to rush or skip individual items or may hinder the ability of noticing participants who may be having difficulty understanding certain items. These drawbacks can have serious…

Teacher-candidate course assessment is one topic that has not been adequately explored in teacher education literature where pre-service teachers' voices are rarely heard. This mixed-methods study explored a group of female pre-service teachers (n = 83) enrolled in a Diploma of Education program to identify their preferred method of assessment for…

This study sought to determine how students would describe their group-only cooperative testing experiences in terms of key elements of cooperative learning often cited in the literature. Written comments of 159 graduate students were analyzed and 26 related categories of comments were derived from 495 statements of students enrolled in two…

In the United States, government mandates for educational accountability have prompted an increase in testing in K-12 and higher education settings, resulting in a generation of millennial students who have undergone repeated assessment over the course of their educational careers. The cumulative effects of testing may range from increasingly…

An introductory geology class that satisfies a liberal arts distribution requirement was used to investigate the benefits of allowing discussion during assessments. For three term examinations, students completed short- to medium-length essay tests individually (individual examination) and then again as part of an assigned group of four to five…

This article aims to solve the following problematic issue: how the most essential elements of student learning achievement evaluation should be properly designed? The answers are pursued by the validation of identification of evaluation types, formulation of evaluation criteria and choice of assessment methods. Designing of the most essential…

The purpose of this study was to determine factors that influenced student satisfaction with a new learning management system and to identify which of these factors were most important. The data was collected using an an online survey tool that was administered to students enrolled in courses designed and taught by faculty who participated in a…

This paper investigates the use of new media technologies, in particular wikis, for the compiling and grading of group assessment tasks. Wikis are open web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone with internet access and are well known for their collaborative nature. Wikis are also transparent, which means that any edit/modification is…

Direct measures (tests) of the pedagogical effectiveness of team testing and indirect measures (student surveys) of pedagogical effectiveness of team testing were collected in several sections of an undergraduate marketing course with varying levels of the use of team testing. The results indicate that although students perceived team testing to…

The process of constructing assessment scales for performance testing is complex and multi-dimensional. As a result, a number of different approaches, both empirically and intuitively based, are open to developers. In this paper we outline the approach taken in the revision of a set of assessment scales used with speaking tests, and present the…