(154a) Generating Student-Created Exam Solutions: An Activity for Repetition and Reflection

Posted exam solutions are strategically archived by student groups, e.g., a fraternity, to give future group members extra problems to practice or memorize problems that instructors may reuse. In lieu of posting exam solutions, a post-exam homework assignment has been constructed and used over several years in different undergraduate courses. The individual assignment provides an opportunity for all students to review and reinforce difficult course material covered on a recent exam. An exam rubric is provided to explain the distribution of points, so the rubric serves as a guide to completing the assignment. Office hours with the professor and teaching assistants are also available to help students ‘catch up’ and successfully complete the assignment. If students earned an insufficient score on one or more exam problems, the student writes 1. a complete solution (for their version of the exam in a large course) and 2. at least two complete sentences reflecting on the solution or other points of emphasis suggested by the instructor. If students earn a sufficient score on a problem, they write a very brief statement. For example, “I earned xx points on question 1.” where xx is your score, and draw a smiley face. Therefore, all students in the course must complete the assignment to earn homework points. An additional team component provides students an opportunity to check their solutions and discuss the exam outside of class (i.e., a peer instruction activity). For example, spend at least 15 minutes discussing different ways to solve each problem, and write at least two sentences about what you learned from the team’s discussion. An example assignment and rubric will be shown and shared freely.