Digital Assessment

Summative assessment types are tests and assignments that determine whether the student passes or fails a course. They are therefore often called ‘high-stakes tests’, especially when a high percentage counts towards the final grade. There is a variety of formats that you can use as a summative assessment, such as multiple-choice tests, quizzes, essays, assignments, and/or oral exams. 

How to: 

A summative assessment may require proof of identification and security measures to prevent fraud in order to be a valid assessment. This depends on the format and the goal (nature) of the exam itself. An important shortcoming of online assessment is the lack of invigilation to check for identification and fraud. Therefore it is best to assume that all online assessments are like an open book take-home exam or (group) essays, where it is unclear who did what, so always choose a format that is the least susceptible to fraud. 

There are many ways to do summative assessment and UM offers a number of tools that you can use. Of course, Blackboard offers the possibilities to provide students with graded assignments, like essays, discussion boards, and quizzes. Next to that, Maastricht University has TestVision as its preferred digital exam tool.    

TestVision supports closed questions and open ended questions, but also more unusual types such as the hot match question and the point on image question. You choose which question types to use and it is easy to switch between question types while developing the test. The open-ended questions include the option to have the students upload a document. There is no plagiarism check in TestVision. 

The exams can be set to any duration, from a few hours to weeks or unlimited time. 

Note: It is recommended to have your students take a practice exam to get them acquainted with the software. 

A summative assessment may require proof of identification and security measures to prevent fraud in order to be a valid assessment. This depends on the format and the goal (nature) of the exam itself. An important shortcoming of online assessment is the lack of invigilation to check for identification and fraud. Therefore, it is best to assume that all online assessments are like an open book take-home exam or (group) essay, so always choose a format that is the least susceptible to fraud. 

How to: 

Prevent cheating on exams, quizzes, tests: 

You can use either TestVision or Blackboard for online exams and quizzes. 

Wherever possible, try to change the exam format to a take home exam that allows the use of resources, or even encourages this; 

Apply time constraints to discourage communication among students. Provide sufficient time to take the exam, but no extra time that could be used to communicate the correct answers; 

Avoid the use of multiple choice questions, these answers are easy to communicate amongst students. 

Add a small text that the students see at the start of the assessment where the students are made aware of what is considered fraud or what behaviour is or is not allowed (e.g. this assessment should be made individually, only your notes are allowed, communication with peers is forbidden, when you submit your work you declare that is is your own, etc.). 

Talk to your students about this issue in class and have a discussion on scientific integrity. Discuss the importance of this in their study and later work in the context of the UM codes of conduct. 

About plagiarism: 

For papers and essays, have students use the Assignment function in Blackboard so their work is scanned by SafeAssign. 

Have students submit a declaration of originality with their work. 

Note: At this time, the University does NOT offer tools to secure off-site exams such as proctoring. 

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course.  

Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. This type of assessment therefore provides important information on the development of a student. 

How to: 

There are many ways to do formative assessment, and UM offers a broad variety of tools to facilitate this.This resource provides an extensive overview of methods. 

Here are a few types of formative assessment strategies: 

Summaries and Reflections: Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language. These assignments can be done during online meetings, but can also be provided as asynchronous assignments in Blackboard. 

Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers: Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers. See the Tool Wheel for these Mind- and Concept-mapping tools. 

Visual Representations of Information: Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. Wooclap’s wordcloud is suited perfectly for this, but also Padlet can help. 

Formative quizzes: Students do short quizzes that provide automated feedback.