Here are some examples of tests, but please send us materials that you think would be helpful to your colleagues.

 

• Using examples and short quotations from the text.  Submitted by John Immerwahr, Villanova University.

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• Mindful Reading Assignments.  Michael Strawser (University of Central Florida) has developed an approach for assessing student comprehension of material by asking them to choose and reflect on passages from their assigned texts (as a sort of take-home exam). His article beings with an interesting philosophical discussion of assessment in general, but then gives practical examples in the second half of the article.  

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• Massive list of short answer questions. Professor Stephen H. Daniel teaches Texas sized large-section intro courses at Texas A&M University, and has over 1,000 past short answer questions on his syllabi (scroll down to the appropriate section).

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• Rehearsal tests. David Waller, of California State University-Fullerton, was struck by how different the art classes he was taking as a student were from his own philosophy classes, specifically how much he and his fellow art students learned from seeing each other's work.   In order to help students write better exams, he has them do a "rehearsal exam" and then puts some of the questions up anonymously and lets students critique them.  It is also possible to do this with papers as well. "Pedagogical Pilgrim: what the Arts Taught me about Philosophy." Teaching Philosophy. 28.4 (2005): 343-350.      

 

Update:  October 11, 2015 (E. Tarver)