Turning the Tables on Partial Credit: Computer Aided Exam with Student Reflection for Partial Credit (CAESR4PC)

Abstract

This paper describes a new type of exam, the Computer Aided Exam with Student Reflection for Partial Credit (CAESR4PC). CAESR4PC combines the automatic grading of computer-based exams with a partial credit mechanism that rewards students for post-exam reflection. Intended to be a replacement for hand-graded traditional essay style exams, the grading effort once applied to assigning partial credit and giving formative feedback is now spent reviewing student post-exam reflections. Descriptive statistics and quasi-experimental study results from an initial implementation of this pedagogical technique in a linear algebra course for engineering students are presented. While the CAESR4PC approach is developed with math courses in mind, it is equally applicable to other subjects that have a significant amount of mathematical/analytical content.