Examinations That Support Collaborative Learning: The Students’ Perspective

Abstract

We used surveys and classroom observations to examine student reactions to two-stage exams, where students-first do the exam individually and then redo it collaboratively. Our results show why both students and instructors appreciate this examination format: Two-stage collaborative examinations are relatively easy to implement, have a high potential for learning, and support the collaborative learning approach used in many sciences classes. A look at survey data from an introductory physics class shows that a vast majority o f students (76%) had a positive opinion o f this exam format (expressed in 236 comments) whereas only 10% expressed an overall negative opinion in 30 negative statements. Most o f the positive comments relate to how this benefits learning. In this article, we describe how to implement two-stage exams, discuss advantages and disadvantages, and present the students ’ view.