The past year has increased the challenges of instructors who rely on multiple choice exams, especially for large-enrollment courses. Abrupt shifts to online assessments have combined with unprecedented stress and anxiety among students, resulting in rising concerns about cheating and the validity of the exams among instructors. Many instructors have responded by replacing exams and quizzes with class projects or other alternative assessments.
Multiple choice quizzes can still be a very useful course activity, though, whether for online or in-person courses. Practice or self-check quizzes are a valuable tool that lets students assess their own learning and progress, and lets instructors see when students may be having trouble. A test can be turned into such an activity simply by lowering the number of points available or changing the quiz type from “Graded Quiz” to “Practice Quiz”, in the Canvas quiz settings.
A practice quiz in Canvas does not lend itself to group or team study, however. If you wish to use quizzes as a team-based activity, you may want to consider a different tool. Problem Roulette, for example, is a free online platform, developed by UofM’s Academic Innovation, that can import exam questions from Canvas, a .csv file, or a Word file, and also allows group study activities.
The group study feature enables students to use Problem Roulette to set up and host group study sessions. Capabilities include:
- Invite anyone in the University of Michigan to join a synchronous study group.
- Everyone within the study group views the same practice problem in real time. The correct answer is not revealed until everyone has submitted an answer.
- Chat with study group mates using the built in chat feature to discuss why people answered the way they did, and where people may be getting stuck.
- Add practice problems to a student’s individual Notebook to refer back to at a later time, or to bring to a Study Group Leader, Tutor, GSI, or Faculty for help.
- Each study group member gets access to analytics about their individual performance, including accuracy by topic, and number of correct and incorrect answers.
Some LSA courses already use Problem Roulette, including some large-enrollment Statistics and Physics courses. The tool development team at Academic Innovation will answer any questions that the instructor has about adopting the tool, and can provide technical support when needed.
Whatever platform you choose, practice quizzes are a very valuable course activity. Students get instant feedback about their knowledge of each topic to help guide them to what they need to study more. Instructors can see how many students are practicing, and see who may need extra help.
If you would like to think about repurposing your multiple-choice exams, or would like to discuss your assessments with a consultant, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or schedule a consultation. We’re happy to help!
