Student-created physics problems as an independent and equitable assessment tool

TL;DR

This paper explores an alternative assessment method where students create and solve their own physics problems, aiming to enhance engagement and promote equity compared to traditional timed exams.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates a student-created problem assessment as an innovative, equitable, and engaging alternative to conventional high-stakes exams.

Findings

Student-created problems increased engagement.

The method reduced demographic disparities.

Students demonstrated deeper understanding.

Abstract

Traditional high-stakes summative assessments--timed, in-class exams accounting for a large percentage of the term's overall grade--have often received criticism from the educational community. Such assessments tend to prize a particular "narrow bundle of skills", and have been shown in some contexts to produce disparate outcomes between different demographic groups. Alternative low-stakes assessments have shown potential to improve student engagement and close demographic gaps. In this paper, we document our use of an alternative form of assessment, in which students were asked to create and solve a problem of their own design.