“The aim of active learning is to activate students to engage with the subject matter in a timely and in-depth manner and to prevent students from trying to 'cram' large amounts of knowledge just before a final summative test." – VU Vision on Assessment.
Tip 1: learning objectives first, then assessment
When designing good (active) education, it is best to work from back to front: first determine the learning objectives of your course and then choose a form of assessment (or combination of forms of assessment or tasks) with which you determine whether the students achieve those learning objectives. Good learning objectives often describe what a student can do at the end of the course. This is also known as the principle of constructive alignment, in which the learning objectives, the learning and teaching activities and the assessments are all aligned. For example, if you want to test the students on their skill of writing an essay, it’s best to not ask students as a test what characteristics an essay should meet (this does not actually test the skill itself, only knowledge about it), but have them write an essay as a test assignment.
Tip 2: Focus on feedback and avoid the (final) exam
Are you bound to a course with a classic lecture series, many students and with workgroups? Then it seems obvious to end the course with an exam: it takes you relatively little time and effort, and you assume it is a good tool to determine students' final level. But classical examination also has its drawbacks and delivers less than you might hope. For example, it leads to lower lecture attendance, lower motivation for group participation, more superficial learning (especially in multiple-choice tests) and procrastination. This is not activating for the students, making them less engaged and the learning yield is also lower.
The solution? Weave multiple assignments and test moments throughout the course, ensure that a feedback cycle is present and avoid the final exam as a one-sided test moment. Just like with a final exam, make sure not to blindly focus on the results, and use interim assignments and tests mainly to stimulate the students' learning process via (peer) feedback. To make best use of this, you can also choose to stop taking tests altogether, and only work with assignments. Want to know more about how to do this? Learn from this VU teacher with ‘No more exams’, for example.
Does this mean more work?
- Next time, in part 2 of this tip, we will share how to ensure an efficient and timesaving process;
- Or read our series of tips on saving time. For example the tip about saving time by using a simplified grading scheme, by providing worked examples or by simply not grading all assignments.
Tip 3: explore different types of assignment
Assignments that are very close to real-life situations often fit well with activate learning. In doing so, you can often bring together multiple learning goals. For instance, substantive goals and at the same time interpersonal and societal goals. In many of these assignments, the profit lies in the formative aspect of the assignment: practicing and getting (peer) feedback to improve. Consequently, students see the usefulness of the assignments more, which motivates them.
Want more variety in your assignments and test formats? The VU Education Lab has a knowledge base with a large amount of possible assessment formats and examples described in the VU Vision on Future Assessment. You filter them based on the criteria of the VU Taxonomy, which describes the learning objectives that belong to the VU Bachelor's degree programme. You can use this tool to see, for example, which types of assignments you can use as a test form, for which type of skill and group size.
Tip 4: choose a different format for your course than the traditional lecture series
Want to take it a step further? If you are in the position to design a new course or revise an existing one, start your design with a different basic format than the classic lecture series. Consider a format that puts much more initiative in the hands of the students and gives them more freedom in (within broad frameworks) format and accountability. Consider assignments where they can choose how they demonstrate that they have achieved the learning objectives. For that, see this example from Faculty of Social Sciences and this example of Accounting where students are allowed to determine the order for completing assignments themselves. Or think of project-based or problem-based education, team-based learning or offering challenges. These teaching concepts invite very different forms of assessment. For example, look at this didactic tip on how to develop super courses.