Overall, I am satisfied with my effort and performance
on the quizzes in this course. Ironically, the quiz about which I felt most
confident is the one for which I received the lowest score: the first essay
quiz. I believe that I received this score because it was early in the course
and the expectations were not clear. In general, I have found that all quizzes
lacked specificity and clarity as to what exactly was being tested, especially
when non-traditional test forms came into play. With the essay quiz, I was
pleased with my answer, but see how I did not use a specific term the instructor
was seeking. That withstanding, I feel I learned the most from that quiz
as it required me to interact with the material on an analysis and application
level the other two quizzes did not require. For the second quiz, I felt
our team worked really well together, breaking up the essay questions and
using the other computers to write then cut and paste the answers. As I
mentioned in my most challenging assignment reflection, it did take me a
bit to feel comfortable letting other members take care of certain parts
of the test. I also notice that each of jumped on certain essay questions
that made sense to us (i.e. the Math teacher, to my relief, handled the
first question, which just looking at made me tense with the need to process
the logic of the fractions). Similarly, the third quiz required interaction
with the text and material in a manner that I do not enjoy or receive the
maximum benefit from. I would prefer grading short answer quizzes that really
tell me how students understand or do not understand material than multiple
choice and true/false questions (though I suppose if WebAssign did it for
me I might feel a bit differently. Nonetheless, these two quizzes make me
think about some benefits of non-traditional test taking: students are required
to use other skills that might not be associated with test taking; less
confident could feel less anxiety if they knew they could use the book or
work with others to find answers; the process of making a test could help
them better understand tests and forces students who, unlike me, would not
otherwise go back to reread the text; a variety of assessments would allow
for a variety of intelligences to find success. In the end, if not with
WebAssign, I also believe that the use of technology could allow for more
diversity and innovation in testing while also easing the grading process.
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