Examples of Alternative Assessment: Non-traditional Types of Assessment/Ways to Demonstrate Knowledge

Assessment design is field-specific, so what is appropriate in a computer science class probably won’t be in an English class. It is important to consult with fellow colleagues, and even professionals in your field, to determine what will benefit your students the most.

  • Biology/Chemistry: Draw a diagram of how a process works, indicating what happens if X occurs; open house with poster presentations for other faculty and science students to attend
  • Business: Develop a business/marketing/sales plan for an imaginary (or real) company in a student's area of interest
  • Community Engaged-Learning/Public Affairs: Consider how a community agency might be impacted by a particular challenge (budget cuts, infrastructure outage, public health crisis, etc.)
  • Computer Science: Troubleshoot a problematic piece of code; Develop website/app to solve a particular problem and/or meet a set of criteria
  • Genetics: In order to reduce the written language load, allow students to create a visual concept map using the medium of their choice (paper and pencil/pen, post-it notes, software program, etc.) to demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between key terms and require an additional description, definition and/or example
  • History: Engage in a role play of a particular event in history; Describe what might have happened if one element of a historical event had changed
  • Mathematics: Allow students to take a video of themselves solving a problem and talking through their thought processes; provide a choice of mathematical problems for students to complete to demonstrate mastery of a learning objective
  • Nursing: Provide a case study of a patient and ask students to assess and create a plan of care
  • Psychology: Examine/critique a case study from multiple theoretical positions
  • Rhetoric/Public Speaking: Allow students to submit a pre-recorded video for a required speech instead of presenting live in front of the class
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Examples of alternative assessment for multiple choice exams and traditional testing:

  • open book exams
  • crib sheets
  • take-home exams
  • collaborative testing
  • student portfolios
  • performance tests
  • retake policies
  • adding option of explanation to multiple choice
  • replacing tests with summaries
  • oral conversations/interviews
  • choice in assessment options
  • mixture of assessment types and not just one (e.g., only essays, only tests)
  • students generate the exam questions and choose best/most appropriate
  • students prepare their own exam with relevant topics to be addressed and provide answer key
  • multimodal (visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic) assessments to honor variety of learning preferences
  • manipulatives/handheld objectives to explain concepts covered in course (in-person or via a recorded video).
  • Recording of narrated a PowerPoint/Google Slides presentation and include a typed outline of the main points
  • visual representations of target content using diagrams and/or charts
  • When using traditional assignments, providing hybrid format (multiple choice combined with free response), as it more effectively identifies student understanding
     
  • advertisement
  • develop product or create product proposal 
  • diary entry for real or fictional character
  • letter to friend explaining problem or concept
  • brochure
  • in-class performance: debate or presentation
  • poem, play or dialogue
  • webpage 
  • video
  • work of art, architecture, sculpture
  • news article or editorial
  • performance, exhibition or display
     
  • analysis and response to case study
  • analysis of data or graph
  • chart, graph or diagram with explanation
  • debate
  • legal brief
  • review of a book, play, movie, etc.
  • literature review
  • policy memo or executive summary
  • diagram, table, chart, or visual aid
     
  • annotated bibliography
  • introduction to a research paper or essay (rather than the full paper)
  • literature review
  • executive summary
  • research proposal addressed to a granting agency
  • scientific abstract
  • policy memo or executive summary
  • start of a term paper (the thesis statement and a detailed outline)
     
  • explanation of a multiple-choice answer (students must explain why the answer they chose to a multiple-choice question is correct, or why the alternative answers are wrong)
  • meaningful paragraph (given a list of specific terms, students must use the terms in a paragraph that demonstrates that they understand the terms and their interconnections)
  • short-answer exam (rather than asking multiple-choice questions, make some questions short-answer, to require students to show their understanding of key concepts)
     
  • poster (which could be presented to the class or a larger audience in a poster session)
  • portfolio to demonstrate improvement or evolution of work and thinking over time
  • PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation
  • reflection by students on what they have learned from an experience
  • organize an “open house” or showcase where students demonstrate their work with posters and interact with the public
     
  • “Exit Tickets”: providing questions about the day’s class that students answer before leaving
  • Polling: Use of online programs, such as Poll Everywhere and iClicker to poll students’ comprehension of the subject matter throughout class, or no technology, such as by asking for choral responses or a show of hands
  • Canvas surveys
  • to promote student self-reflection and monitor their progress for future instructional design, set up an anonymous after-class discussion board/”stoplight” daily exit system in Canvas for students to state what they learned/excited them (green), what they have a question about (yellow) and what they don’t understand/made them stop learning (red)
  • use same “stoplight” exit activity with additional questions about emotional states, resources used and specific barriers encountered
  • use progress check-lists for students and instructor to indicate what the students have and have not mastered
     

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