Assessment - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 188

points be reduced (if the approach is to subtract points)? If a student found
a solution to a given problem, described it correctly, but did not implement
it correctly in the programming language, should points be added (if the
approach is to add points)?
− Evaluation of Different Solutions If a question can be solved in several
ways, is one answer preferable over the others? Are all the solutions
accepted?
After these considerations are discussed with the students, they are asked
to work in groups and to construct an evaluation rubric for the test selected
in Stage D which they solved in Stage E. They are asked also to choose
one team member to document their considerations and decision-making
processes.
• Stage G: Presentation of the evaluation rubrics
The groups present their evaluation rubrics in front of the class, explaining
their considerations with respect to each question. In order to highlight the
fact that the same question can be evaluated in different ways, it is recom-
mended to ask all groups to present their evaluation rubrics for the first
question, then for the second question, etc. If there are time constraints, the
instructor can choose one or two questions and to focus on their evaluation
rubrics.
As in Stage D, another option is to let each group analyze the evaluation ru-
bric of another group and to present its conclusions in front of the class.
• Stage H: Conclusion
The instructor of the MTCS course summarizes the main issues addressed
in the different stages of this activity.
Activity 82: Construction of a Course-Summary Exam
In this activity, a course-summary exam (e.g., the AP exam) is constructed.
In some sense, this activity is similar to the previous activity (Activity 81);
it is, however, carried out with respect to a different scope of CS content and
learner population. From the content perspective, a course-summary exam
evaluates learners' knowledge with respect to all the subjects included in the
course; from the learner population perspective, a course-summary exam is
not intended to be solved by one (or small number of) specific class, but rather
by the entire course population. Definitely, these larger scales set a challenge.
In addition to the importance of letting the prospective CS teachers expe-
rience test design and construction processes, we highlight two additional
pedagogical advantages of the facilitation of this task in the MTCS course.
First, in order to develop a course-summary exam, the prospective CS teach-
ers should review the entire course curriculum, and as a result, it is reasonable