Two Stage Assessments

Promoting Collaboration and Feedback for Students

Two-stage assessments can provide students with an engaging alternative to traditional assessment. The first stage of the assessment is completed individually and in the second stage students complete the same assessment in groups of 3 or 4. This assessment method incorporates collaborative group work in a test or exam setting. During a test student motivation is high and instructors can use this high incentive to promote and enhance learning and content retention.

Implementation

Stage 1: A standard individual test written for a duration of approximately 2/3 of the total time.

Stage 2: In the second stage, students will complete the same test in small groups for the remaining 1/3 of the time. The students have already worked on each question during stage 1 so completing the same exam in stage 2 takes less time and allows the group to focus on discussions and finding a consensus for the best solutions.

Best Practices for Implementation

At the start of the course and throughout the semester describe the structure for two-stage assessments. Inform students about the benefits and reference evidence from previous classes and research.

Emphasize the importance of collaboration by creating opportunities during each class for students to work with various small groups (group problem solving, think-pair-share, sage and scribe, team-based learning and other small group discussions and activities). Ensure students have the opportunity to work with a variety of other students.

A common split is approximately 85% for individual (stage 1) and 15% for group (stage 2). This maintains the importance of individual preparation while providing an opportunity for students to improve upon their grade from the group portion.

This allows for a large enough group to obtain multiple perspectives and ideas while remaining small enough for each student to be able to contribute and find a group consensus. Groups can be randomly assigned using an online team generator.

Students write all their names and must work together to agree on solutions to hand in one test. If more than one test is handed out, students tend to work alone more and withdraw from the discussion.

A policy where test mark will be the higher of either 85% x (individual grade) + 15% x (group grade) or 100% x (individual grade). In practice, the group grade will be higher than the individual grade for most students and therefore provides a boost for the overall test grade.

A variety of question types can be incorporated into the exam, however, longer essay type questions should be avoided as these can be difficult to complete as a group. Try to create questions that will benefit from group discussion.

The stage 2 portion can be the exact same test as stage 1 or it could be a subset of the questions from stage 1 (such as the most challenging/conceptual questions).

References