Class-Sourcing Exams: Student-Generated Exam Questions (Abstract Only)

Abstract

Coming up with quality, representative, fair exam questions can be difficult. This lightning talk explores one faculty member's eureka moment to have students generate their own exam questions. This approach was tried in a 300-level cross-listed Computer Science/Information Technology course entitled "Programming Graphical User Interfaces." Students were asked to generate at least one question in each of a variety of categories (multiple choice, true/false, short-answer, and coding questions). Five points of the exam (out of 100) was assigned to the students based on their submitted questions. Students were told that if they had a reasonable distribution of quality questions across all course topics, the test would pull entirely from their exam questions. Students used a Google Form to submit questions and to rate how "good" they thought their questions were. The student-submitted questions yielded a 22-page comprehensive study guide, and, at least in this first instance, a solid, representative, and fair exam.