Strategies for Authentic Assessments of Mastery in CS Courses

Abstract

Assessing student mastery is an increasingly important aspect of a computer science (CS) course. Recent discussions in the SIGCSE community have questioned traditional assessment and grading practices, such as the use of high-stakes exams and standardized programming assignments. As an alternative, authentic assessments of mastery have been proposed with the goal of creating more equitable and inclusive classrooms that support a diversity in student discourses and epistemologies. This Birds-of-a-Feather session will provide a forum for conversations around assessment of student mastery. Although conversations will likely draw on experiences from teaching remote courses, the discussions can also inspire assessment ideas and methods that work for in-person instruction as well. The discussion leaders will begin by sharing their experiences using formative, low-stakes quizzes; two-stage individual and group assessments; student-generated video problem solutions; written research papers; and creative projects. For each assessment, the discussion leaders expect to address questions such as: What were the goals? What classes was it used in? How did we grade it? How does it scale? This session is a space for participants to expand our collective understanding of how authentic assessments can be used in CS courses and share ideas to inform research and practice toward grading for equity. Afterward, discussion notes will be compiled and publicly archived at https://kevinl.info/authentic-assessments