No Tests!

I got a comment from one of my instructors and he said I might be getting some publicity so I figured I would get some new content out here. I have a couple ideas for articles that I hope will spark some discussion so here goes…

At CTU Online we don't have tests. (I don't know about other online schools so if you have first-hand knowledge of other institutions, please add your comments.) At first glance, that almost seems to imply that there is no basis for measuring the knowledge and learning of the students which translates to their degrees being valueless. On the contrary (I have been listening to a C. S. Lewis audio book during my daily commute so if I start to sound pompous, please smack me down), the measures are there and I believe that they are a much more valuable gauge of students' abilities than tests.

Note: I was about to go into this big thing on honesty and cheating but I decided to save that for another article. Please hold off on related comments or shoot me an email with your comments; better yet, blog it and send me a link!

Our grades at CTUO are based purely on projects. How about that, in the "real world" we are evaluated on our project performance too. Some projects are just a few paragraphs to be posted on a discussion board, others are PowerPoint presentations, and there are other types depending on the course objectives. The thing is, we get to apply the knowledge while we are acquiring it. I have a poor short-term memory so if I don't put something into practice, I forget about it. By applying the knowledge it somehow goes into a different area of my brain that is actually good at remembering stuff so I really learn it. Tests just don't focus on that area of learning; they only focus on the end result, the answer. While I am a good test taker, I think it is a lot more valuable that we have to demonstrate how we came up with the answer and reason out the issues involved. It is not enough to say that a particular network application is the best choice for a situation; we should have to describe why we believe this to be true.

About half of the projects so far have been various deliverables that are turned in to the instructor. Things like PowerPoint presentations, short research papers, programs, etc. Mostly the sort of thing you might do at a regular job. You don't do research papers at work? Has anyone ever asked you a question where you had to look up the answer? I am sure you have. You might have even provided some links to online material where you found the answer; yes, you even cited your resources. Maybe not formally but the concept is the same. The point is that you have a problem, you find an answer, and you document the answer to prove your point. Do a thorough job and you have demonstrated your knowledge; your reward is a good grade which might even turn into some cash in the future when you finish your education (the formal one).

I mentioned earlier that some of our projects are multi-paragraph posts on a discussion board. It is really not that simple and it is a lot more valuable than it sounds at first too. Not only do we have to post our research to the general public (for the particular class at least); we also have to reply to the posts of others. We can't pass the class without doing these assignments that force us to open ourselves to criticism. Whoa! This is too much like the real world! That is what is so great about it. I am pursuing a software engineering degree and I work in the industry at the same time. I also seek criticism of my work on a regular basis. If you have trouble learning from your mistakes or prefer to hide them, it is time to change. It is kind of cliché but it is also true that if you do not learn from your mistakes then you are doomed to repeat them. One more thing about discussion boards; if you really want to get the most out of these assignments, defend your case. The more active students will likely engage in a lively conversation and you will all learn more from it. Technology projects are almost always a team effort and the discussion board projects help engage the students in communication activities. As far as comparing discussion board assignments to tests; discussion boards provide a more positive experience of learning from mistakes while with tests it is too late to fix the mistakes so we often don't even bother to.

We are also honing a key skill that is more valuable than any technical knowledge, research. I was already pretty successful as a software developer and a database administrator and really the degree is not really a necessity for me. I came back, however, to fill in some of the gaps in my general knowledge that I missed by not finishing college in the first place. The biggest life lesson that I learned since I left college was that it is not as important to know the answer but more important to know how to find the answer. That is what we are being "tested" on.