TRANSFORMING EXAMS INTO LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES USING REAL-TIME SCANNING OF BUBBLE TESTS

While clickers give an opportunity for students to engage with lecture material, most courses still resort to traditional written exams for summative assessments. I present results from a "real-time scanning system" that is a hybrid between traditional "scantron" exams and clicker technology. By rapidly processing bubble-test exams in the classroom, students can leave the exam knowing the correct answer to every question, why it was correct, and their final score on the exam.

In this system, students complete a multiple choice exam using a bubble test answer sheet. The scanning software produces a "ciicker-like" histogram of student responses for each question showing which responses were most popular as well as tables designed for both students and faculty (showing a color-coded matrix with every student response in one row and every question in one column.) Unlike a clicker system, students can tackle a large number of questions in succession, completing them in any order and spending more time on the ones that are challenging to them.

For a 75 minute class, I impose a 50 minute time limit for the exam with 25 minutes for discussion. During a brief 2 minute break, I complete all scanning and display a table with student results. Students enjoy the post-exam break, but the room silences once I project the student scores on the screen and each student searches for his or her name. We step through the exam, discussing and reteaching difficult questions. Students have the opportunity to explain WHY they chose a particular answer and can draft a formal appeal if a large number of students can justify a different answer.

Post-exam discussion shortens the time available for the exam, which requires administering fewer questions. Because exams are necessarily shorter, I schedule three midterm exams during a semester. While this might seem like a tragic loss of valuable teaching time, the post-exam discussion is valuable enough to warrant the time invested. Repeating a fraction of the most difficult questions on the final exam allows me to explore the impact of the discussion on long-term retention of correct answers.

Student anxiety is lower and satisfaction is higher when tests are shorter, give instant feedback, and are framed as part of the learning experience rather than purely as an evaluation on which they must perform well.