Pedagogy without Borders: New Frontiers of Teaching and Technology

The value of moving away from traditional exams and toward alternative forms of assessment is well established in the literature. Indeed, alternative assessments have been shown to relieve students’ anxiety about exam conditions, encourage them to be more invested in the outcome of the assessment, and promote higher-order thinking and reflection (e.g. Sulzinski, 2021; Williams & Wong, 2009). However, some faculty rely on traditional exams due to concerns about the feasibility and reliability of alternative assessments as well as the time demands of crafting quality alternative assessments.

The Teaching Exchange supports the development of alternative assessments by providing instructors with an online platform to share, search for, and find concrete exemplars of assessments that have worked in their courses. For example, if an instructor was considering adopting a new assessment, such as a video essay or poster presentation, they would be able to search the Teaching Exchange for exemplars, guidance, and inspiration.  The collaborative nature of the exchange provides ways for faculty to learn from one another and promotes discussion of creative and effective assessment in higher education.

In this presentation, we will discuss our process for creating the Teaching Exchange, including defining our goals, collaborations between eLearning Designers, Education Developers, and instructors, and creating and seeding the site. We will also showcase key elements of the Teaching Exchange and discuss our ideas for its future growth. Participants will also be invited to share their own submissions.