Designing better exams means applying the same assessment principles as you would in designing any other assessment task.
Check out the Exams quick tips. These will assist academics in writing/preparing exams and preparing for the exam period(s).
Like other assessment tasks, examinations can be used to measure student learning and the effectiveness of the learning process. So, we must ensure that the skills examined during the examination are constructively aligned with the skills required by the subject learning outcomes. To do this, look at the action verbs in the subject learning outcomes. For example, students may need to be able to explain key principles or make recommendations around a particular problem. These action verbs are key to designing an exam that produces evidence of students demonstrating those skills and abilities.
Another aspect that could be considered is whether the exam is an assessment of learning, for learning, or as learning. The timing of an exam may dictate the type of exam; for example, a mid-session exam may focus on an assessment of learning, while the end-of-session exam is an assessment of learning.
So the above is all about identifying what you require at the end of the assessment, what you want students to learn or show. Then you can ‘plan backwards’ to design the exam you need and obtain the evidence from the exam that you require.
A fixed response can be explained as an objective response in which students select the correct response to a question or supply a word or short phrase to answer a question or complete a statement. This can be done in multiple-choice, true-false, matching, or fill-in-the-blank questions.
A constructed response is a subjective narrative that challenges students to create an original answer. Examples include short answer, long answer, essay, multimodal responses, reflections, or performance test items.
Open book exams allow students access to resources including the web as they complete the exam.
Limited resource exams restrict the resources that students can use.
Closed book exams do not allow any resource material.
The verbs in the learning outcome can provide direction towards the choice of the question type. Some verbs such as identify, list, and select clearly indicate that students need to select the response. If the question is written in such a way that a student has to reason in order to select a correct response, student actions such as analyse or compare could be included in the selection of answers. Generally, verbs such as analyse, apply, interpret, compare, infer and predict indicate that a student should construct a response.
For instance, if the subject learning outcome is expecting the student to be able to synthesis information; then multiple choice questions (MCQ) would not serve as an appropriate assessment tool. Instead, a long answer question with clarity and emphasis on the importance of the student’s ability to synthesis information should be given. However, having MCQ as an assessment does not always mean that the questions are meant to evaluate lower order cognitive skills. MCQ type questions can be constructed to assess higher order cognitive skills like analyse, compare, judge etc.
To gain a greater understanding of potential student actions for different question types, you could review Bloom's or SOLO Taxonomy.
There are many different exam formats. Some examples are:
You may want to map the questions against the subject learning outcomes, knowledge level, degree of difficulty, format, etc to understand the outcomes' coverage and whether the right level of challenge has been achieved.
Use this list to sense check your exam.
We also talk about exams having the following characteristics of:
Another aspect of designing an exam is considering strategies to improve academic integrity.
Consider the following suggestions:
See Designing for academic integrity.
Your exam may not have to be in the traditional question/answer format. Alternate formats such as oral, collaborative, simulation/role play, and sequential formats could be considered. The exam format may make use of multimedia elements in questions and answers. Additionally, multi-format exams may be appropriate.
You may want to consider seeing what either a Google search or ChatGPT submission of your exam/individual questions looks like in these services. Additionally, uploading your exam into Turnitin will assist in the originality score checking that will be conducted during the marking process.
Actively lift student awareness around the risks associated with cheating, collusion, and the use of generative artificial intelligence. Develop student media literacy and critical thinking skills, especially in terms of generative artificial intelligence. Promoting a sense of student belonging and accountability to each other and the subject coordinator. Creating a culture where cheating is not acceptable. Further information on promoting academic integrity is available via the Academic Integrity webpage.
Explicit and clear expectations and instructions play a key role in exam design. Communicate with students about what is allowed in terms of instructions and behaviour. The Assessment design principles document contains advice about design principles to inform your exam.
Providing academic skills support and a scaffolded learning environment for students will reduce the likelihood of breaches in Academic Integrity (Ahsan et al., 2022). Help students feel confident in taking an exam through scaffolding and using a practice exam with feedback.
Communicate to students about any plagiarism detecting strategies that might be used.
Turnitin and Charles Sturt Academic Integrity Checking Processes.
A subject may require students to be prepared to give an oral presentation or response to the assessor (or other audience) on a particular topic or communicate relevant information from their assessment tasks. The assessment policy provides further information on the oral presentation or response.
Can include shuffling question answers, randomising pools, disabling copy/paste, time limits and varying questions between exams. Never reuse whole exams from previous sessions. Even small changes to case studies or questions can be effective. See:
In some cases, an alternate assessment type may provide a preferable method to assess a student's knowledge of learning outcomes.
To discuss an alternate assessment type, please log a service request.
Writing effective exam questions can take time and lots of redrafting. Consider working with others to write questions or to bounce ideas off.
