Towards the end of the semester, minds are turning towards end of semester assignments and exams which can add stress for everyone. As faculty we need to prepare meaningful ways to measure the students’ learning and support them in preparing for those final assessments.
- Understanding assessment expectations. UNCG students come from diverse backgrounds and so have varied expectations of the assessment process. University College London provides practical strategies to help faculty support students in understanding assessment expectations and standards, emphasizing the importance of active participation in the learning process. They advocate employment of guided marking as it actively involves students in the grading process and exposes them to samples of different levels of work.
- Peer review. Cornell advocates students produce draft assignments for peer review as it helps overall learning and enhances reading, writing and collaboration skills. It also gives students valuable feedback before final grading.
- Student preparation. No matter how well we have taught a course unless students prepare themselves mentally, physically and cognitively for exams they are unlikely to perform optimally. We need to remind our students of scientifically proven good study habits. We need to be mindful of Metacognition in the classroom and encourage cognitively active study habits that promote working “smarter not harder”.
- Reduce test anxiety. Anxiety is a big issue for our students share this resource from University of Northern Colorado on how students can try and reduce their exam anxiety.