Alternative Assessment of Active Learning

Leveraging the Analytical Chemistry Primary Literature for Authentic, Integrated Content Knowledge and Process Skill Development

“…If assessing cognitive competencies, ELIPSS rubrics are valuable as showing work, articulating thought processes, and/or appropriately supporting claims with data are required as evidence of process skills. , These types of open-ended questions have also proven useful for implementing a group discussion component into exams. In analytical courses at TCNJ, students would complete their exams individually (as a take home with open access to resources) prior to discussing with members of a small group. , As many questions had more than one correct approach, a robust discussion was required for the group to reach consensus on the best answer. Each group received immediate instructor feedback, and the group grade constituted 40% of their overall exam score.…”

Navigating the Future of Separation Science Education: A Perspective

“…Course-based research projects driven by students can be adopted to help teach project management, communication, and teamwork skills that are essential to success in today's chemical industry [37]. Student assessment should reflect the importance of these skills, as they are also abilities that will be critical in their future careers [38]. Aligning learning goals with the current needs of industry and leveraging research experiences and internships to give students direct hands-on experience with modern instrumentation can also be beneficial [39].…”

Specifications Grading at Scale: Improved Letter Grades and Grading-Related Interactions in a Course with over 1,000 Students

“…Others who have implemented specifications grading similarly found the time to design the grading system was substantial, 4,15,20,28,29,36,51,52,77 but that the time to grade assessments and manage the course did not considerably change or decreased. 1,3,4,8,9,14,15,17,19,28,36,41,43,44,52,58 The only major time commitment we encountered was the design of the grading system up front, but it is our experience that courses with preexisting studentcentered structures and policies will require less time to convert to specifications grading.…”

“…The number of times students may revise and resubmit assignments is commonly limited using a token system whereby students may exchange their limited number of tokens for resubmission. 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Examples of specifications grading systems implemented in college-level courses began appearing in peer-reviewed journals and in conference proceedings in 2016, and the number published each year continues to grow (Table 1). While published examples in journals, conference proceedings, and 50 conference abstracts include courses from nearly all disciplines, [18][19][20][21] including humanities, 15,22,23 social sciences, 4,24-26 education, 9,27 public administration, 28 health sciences, [29][30][31] and veterinary medicine, 16,32 STEM courses comprise the majority.…”

“…Examples of specifications grading systems in STEM courses come from engineering, 5,10,12,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] computer science, [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] mathematics, 3,7,8,11,[50][51][52] biological sciences, 7,53-55 physics, 7,56 and chemistry. 1,6,7,14,17,[57][58][59][60][61] In the chemistry discipline, our pilot study is the only 55 publication that specifically describes implementing specifications grading in a standalone laboratory course. In our pilot study, we designed and implemented a specifications grading system in the smallest of the three organic chemistry laboratory courses at UCI.…”