There are courses for which reasonable alternatives to final exams exist. These might include seminars, studio and performance courses, certain laboratory courses, student teaching, and so on. All such courses should, however, include appropriate summative evaluation activities. Note that one-time exceptions to a final must be approved by the department chair before the semester begins and the information included in the syllabus on the first day of class.
Final paper instead of exam
The
standard alternative to a final exam, the final paper can take many forms. Make
sure that the paper is integral to the course and not simply an add-on. One way to accomplish this, to help
students write better, and to diminish the chances of plagiarism is to give the
assignment early and ask for portions of the paper to be turned in at
intervals: preliminary topic, outline, bibliography, draft, and so on. And ask students to include all drafts
and notes along with the final paper.
A series of quizzes or chapter exams
instead of a final
Unless there is a
solid pedagogical reason for an all-encompassing final, you might consider a
series of exams throughout the semester. You can always add one or two questions relating to previous units in
the course.
Memorandum or
briefing
Students prepare a one or two page memorandum or briefing,
with, for example, the following headings: background, problem, possible
solutions with pros and cons, final recommendation (and you can add as you like, for instance, final
recommendation with implications, possible impact, and so on). Besides being a
good exercise in synthesizing material, it’s an excellent way for students to
practice being concise and direct.
Professional
presentation
Many courses lend themselves to presentations of the kind
that a professional consultant would provide to a community group or some
kind. For example, in Architecture
and City and Regional Planning, students often present their projects to a
simulated “community board.” The
presentation could be applicable to many fields, in the form of an expert
witness presenting material. One variant: Local library board. Make a
presentation arguing for the inclusion of certain books in the library, based
on the reading for the semester. Applicable to many different disciplines.
Annotated Anthology
or course reader
Students prepare a selection of works they have read during
the term as a thematic anthology—they create the theme, choose the works,
write a paragraph introduction to each, and an introduction to the
anthology. (If the works
themselves are short, e.g., poems, they should be included). For longer pieces,
just a table of contents, the introduction, and the introduction to each
piece. Of course students will
also have to think about order. Katherine Snyder of English has used such an
assignment [word] as part of a final exam, but it could be easily adapted for use as a
final assignment.
The course reader exercise works essentially the same way, but in this case, students have to organize the readings chronologically to develop the theme they’ve created for the course. This assignment can be made as complex as you wish, by asking for such things as assignments to go with the readings, suggestions for further reading, and so on.
Poster Sessions
(with peer critique)
This is applicable to many different kinds of classes.
Chemistry 1A has used it quite successfully in large classes for several years.
Here is a description of the assignment developed by Michelle Douskey:
“The goal of the project is to help each student link the material covered in class to everyday products and processes by asking and answering key chemistry questions that get at the heart of the topic. Students must pick a topic from a given list, develop a hypothesis, and perform library research to support or refute their hypothesis. The students present their research during a poster session the last lab period. The scaffolding focuses on two main aspects of the project; support for the students and support for the GSIs. The GSIs are trained to assist the students in the refinement of their hypothesis and in the search for appropriate sources of information. Students are given a topic list, an example poster, the grading rubric and a proscribed feedback mechanism with the GSI. The clear timeline and implementation strategies help the students to be successful in pushing their understanding of the chemistry. When polled in the Spring 2005 semester, 84% of the students stated that project increased their ability to apply chemistry to things beyond the textbook.”
Annotated portfolio
of work throughout the term
Portfolios in place of a final have been used for a number
of years in the College Writing Programs. Students compile their best or representative
work from the term, write a critical introduction to the portfolio and a brief
introduction to each piece.
Annotated research
bibliography with introduction
Rather than ask students to write a research paper, ask them
instead to compile a bibliography on a problem or question. In essence they do
everything but write the paper. They must read the works, evaluate their
accuracy and helpfulness, and provide an explanatory introduction to the
bibliography (from Anna Livia
Braun, French). Each entry
contains an explanatory and/or evaluative paragraph. Students can also compare the relative usefulness of
sources, authors’ points of view, biases, and so on.
Fact Sheet
Developed by Barbara Abrams of Public Health, a Fact Sheet
is a more demanding assignment than it first appears to be, and would be
relevant to other courses. Such a
fact sheet would be intended to be distributed to the public in relevant
places. While Abrams’ fact sheets
deal with health issues (smoking, HIV, etc.), other applications might be in
economics or sociology (school board budgets or trends in enrollment), history
or political science (fact sheet on the 1960 Presidential Election),
engineering (fact sheet on the new Bay Bridge). Students must learn to search the relevant databases for the
discipline, evaluate material, and present it in a concise, readable way. See Professor Barbara Abrams' Disease Fact Sheet Assignment. [word]
Reflective paper
If the class is experiential in nature (e.g., student
teaching, performance), ask the students to write a reflective paper/critique
of their experience. The key here is to make them tie this to theory or themes
in the course so that it doesn’t become an effusion of personal feeling.
Even in non-experiential/performance courses, a reflective paper can be very useful. Some classes ask students to add a reflection to a term paper. See College Writing Reflection Paper. [pdf]
Wikipedia entry instead of
term paper
A good
Wikipedia entry requires the same skills as a term paper, but is shorter for
the most part and more attention must be paid to language and communication to
a more general audience. An excellent article can be found online.
Op-Ed piece to be
sent to local newspaper
Like the Wikipedia entry, the Op-Ed piece is a “real world”
exercise that requires not only a thorough understanding of both sides of an
issue, but an ability to understand the audience.
Historical Trial
These
of course are not new, but are not often used in colleges—although they
seem ideally suited, because the preparation can be demanding. An excellent resource is from the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Chicago.
While the material is geared for high school students, the concepts are easily
applicable to more demanding assignments.
Question banks
“Learners compile
a list of a specified number (for example 300) of short, sharp questions about
a topic or subject, and make a parallel list of answers to the questions, or
clues leading towards the answers. My own experience shows that this increases
learners’ want to learn, as it helps
them break down the daunting task of getting to grips with a topic area into
the more manageable steps of working out what questions they need to become
able to answer, and linking the questions to the answers. Those learners who do
not revel in trying to write in sophisticated language like the fact that the
questions are intended to be short and direct, and the quality of a question
bank depends on the relevance of the questions rather than the use of language.
Question banks also give learners a high sense of ownership of the need to learn, as they translate the
meaning of the intended learning outcomes into a practical tool which they can
use to develop their ability to achieve the outcomes. Learning by doing is involved in making a question bank in the
first place, then it lends itself to practice, repetition and trial and error
as learners put it to use. What is more, they have control and ownership of all
stages of the learning by doing. Learners get immediate feedback as they use
their question banks, especially when they use them with fellow-learners
quizzing them with the questions, and checking whether their answers are
satisfactory. All this practice and repetition does a great deal to help
learners to make sense of the subject
matter covered by the questions and answers, at least to the extent of
equipping them to be better able to answer questions in traditional exam
contexts.”
(from Phil Race, 1988, Making Learning Happen, Chapter 4: Assessment Driven Learning)
Student-Proposed Final Project
Students who have
achieved a certain grade point in the class may have the option of suggesting a
final project that they would like to undertake.
You can find a good debate about final exams in the Manitoban newspaper
The classic and standard resource for assessment techniques is the book Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross, (Jossey Bass, 1993).