With challenges of having online exams in mind, we wanted to share some ideas including: substituting a paper or project for a final exam; developing open-book, open-note exams; avoiding highly time-constrained exams; and creating an option for students to base their course grade on work completed up to the final exam.
If an exam is required, we recommend the following:
- Design it as an open-book, open-note exam. To account for internet speed and bandwidth issues, we suggest adding additional time to the estimated time required for completion (e.g., for an exam expected to take 1 hour, provide 2 hours for completion). Remind students explicitly that the time allotted includes the time to upload the completed exam.
- Include explicit directions that explain your expectations clearly. Provide written guidelines about what is and is not allowed during the examination (collaborating with peers, citing sources, using notes or exams from previous classes, accessing information or searching the internet, etc.).
- Exams should be available asynchronously just as with the classes. In particular, it may be difficult for all students to take the final exam during a given exam time, due to issues with time zones, complications with home lives, etc. The window of time the exam is available should provide for flexibility on these dimensions.
- Exams need not be scheduled for a specific time, but can be “floating” so that students can select when to download, complete and upload the exam. Specifically, the exam tool within Sakai allows you to set the window of time that the exam is available for students. You may then independently set a time limit for the exam—i.e., the amount of time the student has to complete the exam once they have downloaded it. For example, students might be given a 48-hour interval during which they may select the best 3-hour window to take the exam.
- Students should be reminded of the Duke Kunshan Community Standard when the exam is provided. (This can be enabled in Sakai Tests & Quizzes and Assignments to require acknowledgment of the honor code before beginning the exam.)
- Please also see the recommendations for assessments on the Keep Teaching website: https://lile.duke.edu/keepteachingdku/strategies/assessments/
Adopted and modified based on the recommendation from Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University.