Public exams decrease anxiety and facilitate deeper conceptual thinking

Abstract

Assessment methods across post-secondary education are traditionally constrained by logistics, built on prior practice instead of evidence, and contribute to the inequities in education outcomes. As part of attempts to improve and diversify the methods used in assessment, the authors have developed a flexible and low-tech style known as ‘public exams’ based in best practices. Public exams attempt to bring students authentically into the process of assessment through the use of pre-released portions of the exam. Through mixed-methods research at a closely-matched pair of an R1 and a community college classroom, we observe significant signals of positive impact from the public exam on student experiences. Public exams appear to result in deeper thought, more efficiently direct students to the core concepts in the discipline, and decrease anxiety in and around the exams. The public exam experience does not show evidence for exacerbating gaps in exam outcomes for students from minoritized backgrounds. This evidence suggests that public exams are an evidence-based, useful assessment style for instructors looking to improve their assessment design and implementation.