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[kedves]

I teach in a classroom, but all my multiple-choice tests are online on Blackboard.  I want to keep them online, but I have problems with students who forget to take tests.   These are mostly weekly reading quizzes and have been effective at encouraging students to keep up with the reading.  I have about 80-90 students per class, 4 classes.  I have tried these approaches, each with its problems, and wonder if there is a better solution:

- count the top 10 of 12-15 (weekly) tests - pain-in-the-neck because it must be done manually on a student-by-student basis in the gradebook  (as far as I know; I haven't figured a way to get BB to drop X number of low scores automatically; is there one?)

- have students take test on paper in my office day after - not every student can do this, only 2 can do it at a time (max.), and I would prefer not to have students in my office while I'm working

- have students request that I bring paper copy of test to take after class (between classes) - more email to deal with, printing out and keeping track of (grading and recording) more bits of paper

- make up missed test(s) online on some specified day - I am trying this method in the current semester and am concerned about cheating, but the make-up scores have been low enough for me to wonder if that is a problem.  I would like to create larger question pools so I don't have to give the same quiz, and for my regularly taught classes I could do that, but this semester I am teaching a new class in addition and spending a lot of time writing new multiple-choice questions every week.


I know that some people will advise, "Let the students forget the tests and live with that," but that's not an option for me.

I think my favorite method (or least disliked method) was printing out the quizzes and letting the students make them up after class or in my office, but I am a little concerned about copying costs--our chair often talks about those.  However, I save on copying by not giving most tests on paper as others in the department do, so maybe it is okay.  Possibly I am too conformist to the "think before you print" directive.


What do those of you do who teach a hybrid course or entirely online?
Is there a strategy I am missing?

Thank you for any advice you can give.

[johnr]

Here's an idea.  It might not work for you, but it's what I do.  I keep the tests "open" for as long as possible.  For example, I give a twenty minute online quiz each week, but the quiz is available for that entire week.  They can take it early, they can take it at the last minute, they just have to take it during that one week window.  Plus, I remind them to take the quiz at least once every lecture. 

Very few students "forget" for an entire week, especially when I'm reminding them every day.  The added bonus is that they don't really have an excuse if an "emergency" comes up.  How many emergencies last for the entire week? 
 

[kedves]

Here's an idea.  It might not work for you, but it's what I do.  I keep the tests "open" for as long as possible.  For example, I give a twenty minute online quiz each week, but the quiz is available for that entire week.  They can take it early, they can take it at the last minute, they just have to take it during that one week window.  Plus, I remind them to take the quiz at least once every lecture. 

Very few students "forget" for an entire week, especially when I'm reminding them every day.  The added bonus is that they don't really have an excuse if an "emergency" comes up.  How many emergencies last for the entire week? 
 

When I tried that, I ran up against a cheating ring.  A sacrificial member of the ring would take the test first early in the week and share the questions with other members, not caring if his or her score was low for that week because he or she could score high when it was someone else's turn to go first.  (I didn't make the answers available until after the deadline, but just seeing the questions was enough to give them time to look up the answers.)  The greater the number of members of the ring, the less the total impact of that low first-test-taker score.  I could do this if I had a really big pool for each test, though.

[larryc]

Makeups = short essay tests, or 2-4 page typed summaries/reaction papers to the readings. Make them write.

[johnr]

Here's an idea.  It might not work for you, but it's what I do.  I keep the tests "open" for as long as possible.  For example, I give a twenty minute online quiz each week, but the quiz is available for that entire week.  They can take it early, they can take it at the last minute, they just have to take it during that one week window.  Plus, I remind them to take the quiz at least once every lecture. 

Very few students "forget" for an entire week, especially when I'm reminding them every day.  The added bonus is that they don't really have an excuse if an "emergency" comes up.  How many emergencies last for the entire week? 
 

When I tried that, I ran up against a cheating ring.  A sacrificial member of the ring would take the test first early in the week and share the questions with other members, not caring if his or her score was low for that week because he or she could score high when it was someone else's turn to go first.  (I didn't make the answers available until after the deadline, but just seeing the questions was enough to give them time to look up the answers.)  The greater the number of members of the ring, the less the total impact of that low first-test-taker score.  I could do this if I had a really big pool for each test, though.

Very true.  I set up a test pool (through blackboard) of 25 questions.  Blackboard randomly picks five questions, then randomizes the order of the answers, so each student sees something different.  It's a pain in the rear to set up, but it does prevent the cheating rings. 

The best part is that I don't tell the students about the randomization scheme.  For the first quiz, there are always a few cheaters who get the "answers" from their friends (i.e. A, C, D, B, E).  That's what the enter, and then they are shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that life doesn't work that way.  And what can they say?  I know that they cheated because the quizzes aren't that hard.  I give the quizzes to ensure that the students do the reading.  Do the reading, take the quiz, earn 4 or 5 points easy. 

[kedves]

I like both of those ideas, the written assignment or the smaller set of quiz questions from a pool with a longer deadline.  Thank you!

[phi_rabbit]

It is actually possible to get Blackboard to drop the X highest/lowest of something, but you have to set up grade weighting by category to do it.  As far as I know if you do not weight grades and just have it set up on a straight points system, it does not work.

[kedves]

It is actually possible to get Blackboard to drop the X highest/lowest of something, but you have to set up grade weighting by category to do it.  As far as I know if you do not weight grades and just have it set up on a straight points system, it does not work.

Thank you!  I looked around and found several university Blackboard-info sites that show how to do it.

This is very exciting.  I have lots of options now.

[zuzu_]

Yep, I like the top ten scores solution best. Even if it's a pain in the ass to set up with Blackboard, it will save you tons of time and hassles down the road.

A heinous essay-style make up (a la larryc) is my second choice. This penalizes the "bad" students but still gives the "good" students an opportunity to rectify an honest mistake. The downside to this is that it entails extra distribution and grading time on your end.

[melba_frilkins]

For years I wanted to do the drop-the-lowest grade(s) option and now that we're using the ANGEL cms, that's an easy option. But guess what, the drop-the-lowest policy actually made it much more difficult to estimate student grades at a given point in the semester, because you had to first figure out whether the quizzes completed so far were likely to be the ones to be dropped or kept. And then toward the end of the semester, students who had done all of the quizzes will not see their grades raised by the last couple of quizzes, but other students will see their grade average raised by the last couple of quizzes, so you have to keep an eye out for that if they wanted an estimate of their grade to date.

What I do instead is have the quizzes "due" in sync with the class, but the closing dates are a bit later as a sort of grace period. If they miss the grace period, I feel no need for further leniency. (And I do use a large bank of test questions, so that no two students get the same quiz).

As a sort of drop-the-lowest grade option, I would do something like: There are 12 online quizzes. The final grade scale (total points possible) includes 10 of these, making 2 of them count as extra credit. If a student does take all 12 quizzes, good for them, they get some extra points. If a student misses a quiz it was "only extra credit" so it's not cutting away from the base grade that they have earned. The joy of this option no grade book messiness, just have make sure your grade scale (e.g., A = 450 points, B = 372 points, etc.) is correct.