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Teachers: How to Assess in A Virtual Environment?
enlightenedbum
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I teach math (Algebra 2, specifically) and we've thankfully gone 100% virtual. I am wondering if any other teachers have creative solutions to assess students in a virtual environment while maintaining academic honest. Because with math especially it is comically easy to use an app to both do the problem and get the work that you are expected to show.
Got about three weeks before the first quiz would be scheduled so plenty of time to work with.
The best solution I've got at the moment is to basically interview them, but even at 5 minutes for each student that's 12.5 hours of my time for every quiz.
Got about three weeks before the first quiz would be scheduled so plenty of time to work with.
The best solution I've got at the moment is to basically interview them, but even at 5 minutes for each student that's 12.5 hours of my time for every quiz.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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If they're sophisticated enough to use an app at least they have to copy it into their own handwriting and thus learned something?
Of course then you'll have problems where the camera quality isn't good enough... 😒
Or if you wanted to be really tricky, you could "randomly" select the students whose work is just a little too perfect, aka likely app-generated.
Randomly drawing questions from 3-5 different versions of the test. More preparation, but less chance of kids getting the same test and sharing answers
Setting up time limits for answers.
Once a question is answered, you can't go back (although teenage me would have hated this, at I often skipped around on tests)
The show your work idea looks good, too. Have students do a timed test online, then submit a picture of their work afterwards.
Maybe do quizzes and smaller tests like this, and do the interview for bigger tests (have fewer questions that test in depth knowledge)
I teach maths at a tertiary institution and also at a high School Program for students who have had "Some Times" so to speak and I've basically given up on maintaining the usual stringent levels of academic honestly because there is not real way to stop them cheating if they try hard enough.
I've tried a few things, some of which are applicable to you and some which aren't. My favourite, which I assume won't be an option for you is to turn all the assessment into online tests through the LMS system we use. For me it's institution approved, so I don't have to stress about weather all standards are being met etc. It's more work to rewrite all the tests into a form that works online, but it saves lots of time in marking.
Aside from that what I've done is basically what DisruptedCapitalist said. I email them the test as a Word Doc and PDF, then they do it during a class, cameras on, so I can stare at them working away and discourage any blatant cheating, they hand write the answers, showing working (Or just annotate the PDFs), then email back (after scanning or photographing the document). This works fine but can be annoying. I've just finished marking a test and I've had kids send me blank documents, the wrong document, 10 photos in a random order, some in terrible lighting, some with questions cut off, so I've basically been super lenient in terms of letting them fix their mess ups because it's a rough situation all around.
a slog could be to create a unique version of the test for each person so you know who cheats based on the question asked and then smash them into the stone age
Give them more time than you think they need. So what would be a 90 minute test? Give them 2 hours. You also probably want to give them some wiggle room, so they only have 2 hours to do it, but it say opens at 11am and closes at 1 pm, to allow for their laptops to die/update, internet drop in and out etc. The system I use allows them to rejoin if they drop out, so that cuts down on manual fiddling, but YMMV
Be lenient when it comes to basically everything because students are going to be all over the place
1. Create online exams that randomly draw from a pool of question, so each student has a unique variation of an exam. Combined with time limits, it makes it very difficult for them to consult each other and finish on time.
2. Have less points on tests and more points on projects. If each student is assigned a unique project (both unique compared to their classmates and unique online so they can't google up a solution), they can't cheat.
For what it's worth, I went with option 1 last Winter. My class average in the exam was a bit below normal, which means either they didn't cheat or they really suck at cheating.
Use distributive property to solve 3(x-5)=15 , photomath divides both sides by 3 instead.
What value of ‘n’ makes 5n+10 equal to 25, photomath just factors out the 5 from the expression.
What value of ‘a’ and ‘b’ could make ax = bx + 7x a true statement, photomath doesn’t even know how to begin with these.
I would also recommend treating the tests like take home tests and not like what they would be taking in class. Assume they always have access to the notes and ask more conceptual questions.
Short version is you should have tests that are fair, relevant, and validated. Should only test on material they would have gotten in the main learning - no extra or supplimental content - and shouldn't try to trick them with confusing language. Or have one option be '5' and the others something like 'z/5 + 6 (π).'
And really questions should be tied directly to a specific chapter or section of material then tested to ensure it is at the right difficulty.
For apps, have them do teachbacks where they show the class how they solved the problem. Have a regular online test and pick one or two problem that they each have to show.
Could you have them give you a written(typed) explanation in a sentence or two on how to solve a problem?
The best option I've seen to really test a students problem solving skills, if the school's policy allows a curved test score, is to give lots of easier questions with a few harder ones thrown in, randomly given to each student, with a time limit too short to answer all the questions. Explain to the students that they aren't expected to finish all the questions and that they just need to answer as many as they can. Anyone who does answer them all you can target as potential cheaters or students who probably should be in a level above where they are, but generally using an app will be slower than actually answering the questions so cheating will be a lower score than not cheating.
But isn't the classic solution still the best, aka the dreaded word problems? Or better yet the multi-question word problem?
Ala
Max and Cindy have identical trucks weighing 3000 lbs empty. Cindy loads 4 500lb boxes into her truck. After Max loads 3 crates into his truck weighs 84% of Cindy's. How much does a crate weight? If Cindy's truck is at the max load, How many additional crates can Max's identical truck carry? Max's friend Matt shows up with a small car, that can only fit 1 crate. If each trip(load-drive-unload-return) takes 87 minutes for the trucks and 69 minutes for the the car, how many pounds of stuff can they move in 9 hours?
That way you can score both setting up the correct equation and solving the equation correctly. And you can swap the values around to give multiple versions of the test. And only give them a few questions that are a bit involved. Rather than like 30 "Solve this equation" type ones.
the problem is sites like chegg. With enough time you can post the question and experts answer it. you then submit the answer.
One of my favourite 'visible thinking routines' is called ESPN. Basically one student does the work, slowly, physically pointing out important steps in the process. Another student records a running commentary of what they've done. Traditionally that student would just film and talk about the other student's work as they're doing it using their phone or whatever, but you could easily assign random pairings and have them send a video over for the other student to put a voice-over onto.
In general visible thinking routines are really good. While not really designed as assessments, they are built to ensure higher-order thinking and thus can be converted into great cheat-proof tasks. I bought this book and find it invaluable, but there are also a bunch available online.