As university faculty, we’re always looking for ways to keep our students engaged, encourage retention of material, and lower the anxiety often associated with high-stakes exams. One effective method is low-stakes testing, providing a way to test students’ knowledge without the pressure of a major exam. This method offers numerous benefits, from increasing retention to improving long-term learning, and it can be seamlessly integrated into your course through various tools like Blackboard Ultra’s Knowledge Checks and PointSolutions clickers.
Let’s dive into the value of low-stakes testing and explore several ways to implement it in your courses.
Benefits of Low-Stakes Testing
- Reduces Test Anxiety: One significant challenge students face is test anxiety, which can negatively affect their performance and, in turn, their learning outcomes. Low-stakes assessments alleviate this by offering a stress-free environment for students to demonstrate their understanding. These assessments are not weighted heavily in the final grade, so students can focus more on learning than on their test scores.
- Reinforces Learning: Frequent testing encourages students to revisit material, which leads to better information retention. This technique aligns with the “testing effect,” a psychological phenomenon that shows how recalling information strengthens memory. Instead of relying solely on cramming for major exams, students are prompted to stay engaged with the material throughout the semester.
- Provides Timely Feedback: Low-stakes tests offer students and instructors valuable feedback on how well the material is understood. Students can identify areas where they need further study, and instructors can adjust their teaching if students aren’t grasping certain concepts as expected. This real-time feedback is essential in helping students succeed before the final, high-stakes assessments arrive.
How to Implement Low-Stakes Testing
- Blackboard Ultra Knowledge Checks
Blackboard Ultra’s Knowledge Checks is one of the most effective tools for implementing low-stakes assessments. This feature allows instructors to build short, auto-graded quizzes they can embed directly into course content. Since these quizzes don’t impact grades, students can engage with the material without fear of poor performance hurting their final mark.
How to use it:
- Integrate Knowledge Checks after each lecture or module to test student comprehension.
- Curate highly engaging documents with concepts you’d like students to learn and intersperse that content with Knowledge Checks.
- Create multiple-choice questions to reinforce key concepts.
- Provide instant feedback for each question to help students immediately understand what they missed.
Blackboard Ultra also allows you to track student progress, making identifying who may need extra help easier. The data-driven insights you gain can help guide interventions or additional instruction as needed.
- PointSolutions Clickers
For a more interactive, in-class approach, PointSolutions polling (formerly TurningPoint) isan excellent option to gauge student learning and mastery. This tool encourages active learning by allowing students to respond to questions during lectures in real-time. Whether it’s through multiple-choice questions or polls, clickers provide immediate feedback that sparks discussion and enhances engagement.
How to use it:
- Begin class with a few clicker questions to review previous content or test knowledge of that day’s topic.
- Incorporate clicker questions throughout the lecture to keep students engaged and to break up the material.
- Use responses to spark group discussions, allowing students to explain their answers and learn from their peers.
Clickers make it easy to collect real-time data on how well students grasp concepts, allowing you to clarify material immediately if necessary. They also foster an inclusive classroom environment, as even the quietest students have an opportunity to participate anonymously.
- Frequent Short Quizzes
Beyond Blackboard Knowledge Checks and PointSolutions clickers, consider incorporating frequent short quizzes throughout your course. These could be quick five-question quizzes at the beginning of each class or ungraded review quizzes available online.
How to use it:
- Create simple, low-stakes quizzes using Blackboard or another quiz tool like Quizlet.
- Design quizzes to review key material or provide an introduction to new topics.
- Make the quizzes cumulative so that students revisit older material, ensuring they don’t forget early content as the course progresses.
These short quizzes can either be graded for completion or not, depending on your goals. Either way, they incentivize students to stay current with the material while allowing them to self-assess their understanding.
- Peer Quizzing
Another strategy is peer quizzing, which can be conducted in pairs or small groups. This promotes collaborative learning and encourages students to engage actively with the content.
How to use it:
- Assign students to write quiz questions based on the course material and then have them quiz each other in class.
- Encourage them to explain their answers to one another, promoting deeper learning and discussion.
- You can even incorporate peer-graded quizzes where students evaluate each other’s responses.
Peer quizzing allows students to view the material from different perspectives and often reveals gaps in understanding that they wouldn’t have noticed on their own.
Final Thoughts
Low-stakes testing is a powerful pedagogical tool that can transform your classroom. Whether you integrate Blackboard Ultra’s Knowledge Checks, use PointSolutions clickers for in-class engagement, or rely on frequent short quizzes and peer quizzing, you’ll help reduce student stress, increase retention, and encourage continuous learning. These methods provide valuable feedback both to you as an instructor and to your students, ultimately leading to better learning outcomes.
By incorporating low-stakes testing into your courses, you create a classroom environment that fosters confidence and curiosity—two key ingredients for student success.