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Assessment Methods

There are many factors to consider when choosing an assessment method. This section provides guidance by presenting the advantages and disadvantages of different assessment methods.

You will also find examples of the possibilities within each method, illustrated through courses at the faculty.

This resource is currently under development.

Why is the choice of assessment method important?

Exams are important to students and can shape both their focus and effort throughout the semester. It is therefore important to use assessment methods that test the skills and knowledge students should have gained by the end of the course.

The assessment method should align with the intended learning outcomes. At the same time, exams also have an important summative function: they confirm the knowledge and skills students have acquired during the course.

Read more about assessment in BetterTeaching (LINK)

Examination Formats

Resources

Using Inspera

The choice of assessment method may be influenced by the fact that assessment is an important administrative task that requires considerable time and resources. However, administrative considerations should generally not determine the choice of assessment method. We encourage you to maintain an active dialogue with the department’s exam administrator for advice and guidance. We also recommend that instructors create exam questions directly in Inspera. This is a useful way to explore and make use of the opportunities available in the Inspera system.

 

Artificial intelligence

AI has become a growing challenge in education in recent years. Concerns that students may use technology to cheat have increased significantly. With access to advanced AI tools, students may potentially copy entire answers generated by a machine. This can threaten both the integrity and reliability of the assessment system. At the same time, artificial intelligence offers many opportunities for meaningful use in teaching.

To address this challenge, UiO has created a resource page where you can learn about the opportunities and limitations of artificial intelligence. It also includes information about UiO’s own OpenAI model, GPT UiO, and advice on how instructors can use artificial intelligence.

Grading

Grading is an important consideration when choosing an assessment method and is often highlighted as a challenge. It involves substantial administrative costs and requires considerable time from academic staff. Grading is also an important quality assurance measure for the education offered by the university, and it can be used as a teaching tool. If students understand how their exam is graded and which qualities are rewarded, they are more likely to work towards these goals. Grades are also important to students’ future career opportunities, so it is essential that the assessment is, and is perceived as, fair. Below are some tips that may help make grading more efficient.

Clear grading guidelines and learning outcomes

It is important that grading guidelines do not rely on implicit knowledge, but clearly state what will be assessed. This helps ensure that similar answers receive more consistent final assessments than they would if the guidelines were more general. The grading guidelines should describe both subject-specific content requirements and expected performance levels. Clear learning outcomes reflected in the grading guidelines can make it easier for students to understand the assessment and perceive it as fair.

In its report on grading guidelines, LINK provides suggestions and advice on how learning outcomes can support students’ learning processes. It also shows how grading guidelines and learning outcomes can link the goals of teaching with the formative and summative assessments students complete.

Using rubrics

Rubrics can make grading more efficient and fairer by making it easier to compare assignments. They can also clearly show students what is emphasised in the assessment. The approach varies between assessment methods, and rubrics can be designed as general tools or tailored to each task. Below are examples of more specific rubrics.

On-campus written exams
Oral exams
  • A rubric can make the assessment of oral exams more efficient and clarify for students what they are assessed on. The resource below describes how rubrics were used as a grading tool in a statistics course, where the aim was for students to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts.
Longer written exams

 

 

Written on-campus exam

A written on-campus exam is an assessment method where students attend a designated venue to complete an individual written test. It was by far the most commonly used exam format in autumn 2022.

Advantages of written on-campus exams

  • On-campus exams take place in a controlled environment. This gives students objectively equal conditions and makes it possible to control which aids are available during the exam.
  • On-campus exams can produce more comparable answers. This may require less individual judgement and support fairer grading, because it is easier to compare answers. For example, each question can be assigned a score.
  • On-campus exams are well suited to testing students’ broad knowledge. They can help students gain a broad understanding of the course by discouraging them from selectively neglecting parts of the syllabus. As students have no, or limited, access to aids and do not know what will appear on the exam, this format encourages them to work actively with the full syllabus.
  • It is a widely used assessment method. Established routines and faster grading can reduce costs.
  • There are many options when designing questions. On-campus exams can test a range of student skills, for example by combining extended-response and multiple-choice questions.
  • Students gain experience writing under pressure. They practise managing and performing in stressful situations.

Challenges of written on-campus exams

  • Limited opportunity to demonstrate in-depth understanding. There is a risk of testing only surface-level knowledge and encouraging strategic reading. Students may develop broad knowledge without gaining a deeper understanding of the subject.
  • They test students’ memory. On-campus exams may primarily test students’ ability to remember and reproduce information.
  • On-campus exams can create the wrong focus. They may unintentionally focus on identifying what students do not know, rather than allowing them to demonstrate what they can do. Students may also feel that luck plays a role, depending on whether the exam includes a topic they know particularly well.
  • There is a risk that the assessment method becomes too routine-based. Instructors and administrators may overlook the opportunities offered by an assessment method simply because it has “always been done this way”.
  • On-campus exams limit students’ learning in actively finding and evaluating source material. Students are tested only on the syllabus provided. This may exclude a source-critical perspective, where students must find and evaluate information themselves.
  • Students have limited ownership of an on-campus exam. In experience, students may be less motivated by on-campus exams than by assignments where they can develop their own project.
  • On-campus exams can increase exam anxiety. Exam anxiety is often linked to stressful situations where students have limited time to think. This can prevent them from demonstrating what they actually know.

Examples

In the introductory course in quantitative methods at the Department of Political Science, students take a three-hour on-campus multiple-choice exam. Multiple-choice questions are selected from a question bank organised by topic and level of difficulty. This streamlines the assessment process, allowing more time to be spent on formative assessment. In STV1020, this less resource-intensive approach to summative assessment frees up resources for providing students with feedback on their compulsory take-home assignment, supporting student learning throughout the semester.

What do students say about on-campus exams?

Under development.

Resources

Portfolio exam

A portfolio exam is an assessment method in which the final summative assessment is based on an overall evaluation of selected work completed by students during the semester. A portfolio exam can combine other assessment methods and consists of at least two pieces of work completed by the students.

Advantages of portfolio exams

  • Portfolio exams can help reduce exam anxiety. Assessments that require deeper thinking are negatively correlated with exam anxiety.
  • Portfolio exams encourage students to work independently. By completing several tasks, students are encouraged to reflect actively on their own work. This can help them become more engaged in their own learning.
  • Portfolio exams promote reflection. Students develop an active relationship with feedback, helping to integrate the learning and assessment processes.
  • Students learn academic conventions. Portfolio exams can develop students’ academic writing skills and understanding of academic conventions to a greater extent than shorter exams.
  • Students learn source criticism. They practise finding and critically evaluating information beyond the syllabus.
  • Many possibilities. The flexibility in task design allows for a variety of formats and intended audiences.
  • Portfolio exams can support continuous work. The organisation of tasks can help students work more consistently throughout the semester and see the natural progression of the course.
  • Portfolio exams can promote broad understanding. Several smaller tasks can help students develop broader knowledge and ensure that they gain some understanding of all course topics, rather than in-depth knowledge of only one topic.
  • They can increase student motivation. Students may feel greater ownership of tasks they work on over time, which can strengthen their motivation. They may also see portfolio exams as more realistic preparation for situations they may encounter in working life than traditional on-campus exams.

 

Challenges of portfolio exams

  • Administratively demanding. As each portfolio exam is unique to its course, administrative routines may be less established and take longer.

  • May involve a perceived lack of control. It can be challenging to ensure that the work is the students’ own and that all students have equal conditions for success.

  • It can be difficult to ensure universal design. When formats vary widely, it can be challenging to provide suitable accommodations for students with special needs.

  • Portfolio exams can be difficult to grade. It can be challenging to compare portfolios and assign a grade if the quality varies greatly within a portfolio, or if students have completed very different types of tasks and formats.

  • Students may find them work-intensive. Studies show that if a portfolio becomes too demanding or stressful, students’ focus may shift away from learning. If a piece of work contributes to a summative assessment, students may become too focused on performing rather than on what they learn during the process. It is therefore important to communicate clearly what is expected for each part of the portfolio assessment.

Examples

In Developmental Psychology 2, students submit six assignments, each linked to a week of lectures. The assignments vary widely. Some are completed individually, while others are completed in groups. Students are assessed through several formats, such as podcasts, posters and scientific articles. This assessment method covers all course topics and gives students broad knowledge, while also requiring them to think independently about the main themes.

 

What do students say about portfolio exams?

Under development.

Oral exam

An oral exam is an assessment method in which students present and discuss course content orally in a conversation with an examiner. This method has increasingly been used at the faculty in response to developments in artificial intelligence.

Advantages of oral exams

  • All candidates have the same conditions during the assessment. Cheating is difficult in practice, and students may also feel a greater sense of responsibility when interacting directly with an examiner.
  • Students gain experience presenting knowledge orally. Students gain valuable experience in presenting technical subject matter orally in a pressured situation. This is an important skill in working life and job interviews.
  • They distinguish between surface-level and in-depth knowledge. Oral exams are often considered better than written exams at distinguishing between surface-level knowledge and deeper understanding. Students are assessed on how they apply course material in a conversation. This encourages understanding rather than memorisation, which can support deeper learning.
  • Oral exams are perceived as more relevant to working life. The context of an oral exam is more similar to situations students may encounter in working life than a written on-campus exam. This may increase student motivation.
  • This method can provide a better measure of students’ actual competence. The examiner can ask about unclear or ambiguous points. This provides a more complete understanding of students’ competence and may result in a more representative assessment than less flexible methods.
  • Oral exams can create a closer link between assessment and feedback. Students can receive feedback immediately and ask the examiner for clarification. This can help them better understand their own performance.

Challenges of oral exams

  • Oral exams are resource-intensive for course staff. This method requires significant time, planning and examiner expertise to assess students’ competence well and fairly.
  • It can be difficult to compare candidates. It may be difficult to establish fixed criteria, which can give examiners considerable discretion in assigning grades and create uncertainty for students.
  • Vulnerable to exam anxiety. Oral exams can trigger nervousness and fear because students have limited time to think.
  • The exam may seem more unfamiliar and “closed” to students. Oral exams can seem mysterious to students, as many are unfamiliar with this assessment method at university level. It is therefore important to communicate clearly what is expected. In many cases, students cannot appeal the result of an oral exam, and their identity is known to the examiners. This can make the exam situation feel vulnerable to subjective factors having an undue influence on the final assessment.
  • It can be difficult to ensure good conditions for students with special needs. Communication-related challenges may mean that a student performs less well than they would if they could speak in their own language or were given more time to think.
  • Administratively demanding. Each student must be assigned an individual time slot. As the exam may take place over an extended period, it can be difficult to coordinate with other courses.

Examples

In the psychology course Wechsler Tests, assessment is divided into several parts: a protocol, a test report and a self-evaluation following a cognitive ability test with a child. The course ends with an oral exam. The examiner first reads the student’s written work, followed by a 20-minute conversation in which the student presents the results of the Wechsler test as if the examiner were the child’s parent or guardian. To ensure fair grading, grades are not awarded until the examiners have met. At this meeting, they compare candidates who are close to the pass threshold, helping to ensure a common standard for passing. Establishing this standard is made easier by the course’s concrete and easy-to-follow learning outcomes. The course is graded pass/fail.

What do students say about oral exams?

Under development.

Semester assignment

A semester assignment is an assessment method in which the summative assessment is based on a written assignment that students work on throughout the semester.

Advantages of semester assignments

  • Semester assignments can help reduce exam anxiety. Assessments that require deeper thinking are negatively correlated with exam anxiety.
  • Students develop a sense of ownership of their assignment. This can increase student motivation and encourage deeper understanding.
  • They encourage students to evaluate sources critically. Students practise finding and assessing source material beyond the reading list.
  • Students learn academic conventions. Semester assignments can develop students’ academic writing skills and understanding of academic conventions to a greater extent than shorter exams.
  • Semester assignments support reflection on students’ own work. Students develop an active relationship with feedback, helping to integrate the learning and assessment processes.
  • They are perceived as more relevant to working life. The context and way of working on a semester assignment are more similar to situations students may encounter in working life.
  • Semester assignments create a natural link between formative and summative learning activities. Learning activities such as peer review and draft submissions help spread the work on the assignment across the semester. The summative assessment guides students’ focus, and this connection can increase the value students gain from formative learning activities.
  • Students must work actively with the course material. Semester assignments require students to process course material and make it their own in order to present it independently in writing. This requires more independence than a shorter assessment and can support deeper understanding.

 

Challenges of semester assignments

  • Semester assignments can encourage strategic reading. Strategic reading is when students read only what they need in order to complete the assessment. A semester assignment may lead students to focus only on the topic they are writing about, rather than developing sufficiently broad knowledge of the course.
  • New technology. Developments in language models make it challenging to ensure that submitted work is the student’s own.
  • It can be challenging to ensure equal conditions for students. Parents, friends or acquaintances may contribute in ways that mean the assessment is not based solely on the student’s own work. Some students may also have advantages because of their personal networks. It can also be difficult to provide suitable accommodations for students with special needs.
  • It can be difficult to determine what students actually know about the course material. Students may appear more or less competent depending on their writing skills.
  • Assignments may be difficult to compare for fair grading. Comparing assignments can be more challenging when they vary widely, especially when students can define their own research question.
  • Students may not take the assessment seriously enough. Since semester assignments may seem less stressful than on-campus exams, there is a risk that students give the course lower priority than other courses. However, experience suggests that this can be reduced when students feel ownership of the assignment and take part in formative activities throughout the semester.

Examples

Academic Writing and Project Development, offered in the first semester of the Master’s programme in Social Anthropology, is a practical course on writing a research proposal. Students receive close support throughout the semester through two formative submissions and ongoing collaboration with a supervisor, whom they keep throughout their master’s degree. The course ends with a 3,500-word research proposal on a self-selected topic, graded pass/fail. Students are encouraged to continue developing their proposal after submission and to use it actively in their subsequent fieldwork.

What do students think?

Under development.

Resources

The University Library offers several services for students working on semester assignments.

Case-based exam

A case-based exam is an assessment method in which students work with one or more cases and develop a solution. Cases can be designed by the course team or developed in collaboration with organisations, municipalities or businesses to draw on authentic cases.

Advantages of case-based exams

  • Case-based exams are relevant to working life, making it easier for students to see the value of what they are doing. They provide useful practice in recognising how their own competence can be applied in working life after graduation and can increase students’ confidence in their own competence.
  • Students feel greater ownership of their work. Many students report spending more time on practical training courses because they feel ownership of the process and want to produce a good result.
  • Many possibilities. Several of the challenges associated with case-based exams can be addressed by adapting the type of case-based course offered. See EILIN’s resource on courses with practical training for illustrations of different ways cases can be used in courses.

Challenges of case-based exams

  • It is difficult to ensure equal conditions. If students undertake practical training, it can be difficult to ensure that all students have the same assessment conditions. It may therefore be difficult to award a representative letter grade.
  • It can be difficult to provide accommodations for students with disabilities when practical training is involved.
  • Resource-intensive. Practical training courses require more work from both administrative staff and the academic staff responsible for the course.
  • It can be difficult to recruit students. Although the Student Survey shows that students miss relevance to working life, experience at the Faculty of Social Sciences shows that it can be difficult to recruit enough students for practical training courses.

Possibilities

See examples in EILIN’s resource on courses with practical training.

 

What do students think?

  • Dialogue with SVSU

Resources

EILIN has developed a dedicated resource on practical training in courses. The resource outlines the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and provides useful examples of how cases are used in courses at the faculty today.

Literature and sources

This resource is based on research literature and the sharing of experiences.

Experience-sharing conversations

Five experience-sharing conversations with UiO staff were conducted in connection with this resource.

  • Håvard Strand, course coordinator for STV1020: conversation about STV1020 and experiences with written on-campus exams, 16 November 2023.
  • Sara Fanny Maria Kvamme-Vik, exam coordinator: conversation about administrative routines related to exams, 16 November 2023.
  • Ida Therese Tideman, course coordinator for PSYC2210 and PSYC2410: conversation about PSYC2210 and PSYC2410, and experiences with oral and portfolio exams, 20 November 2023.
  • Arnd Schneider, course coordinator for ANTH4020: conversation about ANTH4020 and experiences with semester assignments as an assessment method, 20 November 2023.
  • Tone Ognedal, course coordinator for ECON3010: conversation about ECON3010 and experiences with take-home exams, 14 December 2023.

Literature

The resource is based on peer-reviewed literature.

  • Biggs, J. (2012). What the student does: teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 31(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2012.642839
  • Brown, G. T. L. (2010). The validity of examination essays in higher education. Higher Education Quarterly, 64(3), 276–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2010.00460.x
  • Dobson, S. (2007). Theorising oral examinations – a qualitative approach. Norsk pedagogisk tidskrift, 91(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1504-2987-2007-02-05
  • Dochy, F. J. R. C., & McDowell, L. (1997). Assessment as a tool for learning. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 23(4), 279–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-491X(97)86211-6
  • Fegran, L., & Slettebø, Åshild. (2012). Learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment methods. Nordisk sygeplejeforskning, 2(1), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1892-2686-2012-01-07
  • Gibbs, G. (2019). How assessment frames student learning. In Innovative Assessment in Higher Education (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 22–35). Routledge.
  • Gunay, A., & Ogan-Bekiroglu, F. (2014). Impact of Portfolio Assessment on Physics Students’ Outcomes: Examination of Learning and Attitude. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 10(6), 667. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1227a
  • Guo, L. (2022). How should reflection be supported in higher education? - A meta-analysis of reflection interventions. Reflective Practice, 23(1), 118–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2021.1995856
  • Gynnild, V. (2022). “I think I used it as tacit knowledge, if you know what I mean”: A study of grading guidelines at bachelor’s level. Uniped (Lillehammer), 45(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.18261/uniped.45.1.5
  • Hazen, H. (2020). Use of oral examinations to assess student learning in the social sciences. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(4), 592–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2020.1773418
  • Jonsson, A., & Svingby, G. (2007). The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review, 2(2), 130–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2007.05.002
  • Karagiannopoulou, E., & Milienos, F. S. (2013). Exploring the relationship between experienced students' preference for open- and closed-book examinations, approaches to learning and achievement. Educational Research and Evaluation, 19(4), 271–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2013.765691
  • Kvifte, B. (2011). Oral examinations from a student perspective: A survey among student teachers at Østfold University College (Vol. 2011:3, p. 178). Østfold University College.
  • Oliver-Hoyo, M. T. (2003). Designing a Written Assignment To Promote the Use of Critical Thinking Skills in an Introductory Chemistry Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 80(8), 899. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed080p899
  • Roecker, L. (2007). Using Oral Examination as a Technique To Assess Student Understanding and Teaching Effectiveness. Journal of Chemical Education, 84(10), 1663. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed084p1663
  • Smyth, K. (2004). The benefits of students learning about critical evaluation rather than being summatively judged. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29(3), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/0260293042000197609
  • Theobold, A. S. (2021). Oral Exams: A More Meaningful Assessment of Students' Understanding. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 29(2), 156–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/26939169.2021.1914527 

User guides and guidance materials

This resource was developed by Maria Månum Moen at the request of EILIN’s learning contact network.