Quizzes in Introductory Courses: Scheduled or Unscheduled?

[RatGuy]

I often teach a few 2nd-year gen-ed courses each term. These are interdisciplinary humanities courses with an emphasis on reading. I do unscheduled quizzes (the dreaded "pop quiz). Unscheduled here means it's not on the class schedule. I use them partially to determine if students are understanding material we've covered and partially to determine if they've understood the reading for the day we take the quiz. Quiz average is worth 15% of overall grade, and I drop the lowest grade before averaging. Still, students think of these quizzes as punitive rather than instructive, so there's often grumbling about them.

My question: what are some good reasons to go to scheduled quizzes (those that appear on the class calendar)?

Previously, a quiz schedule meant that some students (at least 1/4, but as high as 1/3) would only show up to class on quiz days. Those students unsurprisingly would do poorly on other evaluations (either exams or essays). So by removing them from the class calendar allowed me to continue to review concepts and evaluate their understanding, but also attendance was overall better. Even now, quiz averages are quite high -- but they complain about them ("I don't know when they are," "not knowing gives me anxiety," etc). Trying to determine if going back to a schedule would benefit me?

[ciao_yall]

What if you did pop quizzes with open books in small groups as a way for students to discuss the material? That way they feel some peer pressure to be prepared for class, but they don't have so much anxiety about getting it WRONG and KILLING THEIR GPA.

[Ruralguy]

Pop quizzes are probably a better assessment of where they are at with knowledge, even if it means that they only read stuff the moment you hold them accountable (and tell them you are). I'd maybe try a system where you allow a generous number of drops so that its clear that you aren't looking to kill a grade, but to use as an assessment tool. But honestly, maybe the outcomes of pop quizzes and evals tell you: don't do pop quizzes! Is it really the end of the world?

[Caracal]

It seems like it would be easier to just have an attendance grade if you want to improve attendance. I also wonder if it would be easier to just have reading responses due on the CMS before class.

[Puget]

There are all sorts of good ways to encourage attendance, preparation and engagement that don't inspire the anxiety and ire of students the way pop quizzes do. The general rule is they should be low-stakes, and emphasize learning and reflection. For example, you can require short reading responses submitted before class (I call these "thought questions"), and then have a low-stakes in- class assignment.

[the_geneticist]

You could put it in the syllabus, but in a way that they have to pay attention. Like "you'll have a quiz every other class meeting/every Wednesday/etc".
I agree there are other ways to incentivize attendance (one is to NOT record your class).
Or put them on the calendar, let students know you'll count the highest X of Y, and call it good.  Less complaining about being surprised. Or have something due EVERY class.
  A good reason to schedule them out is if students with accommodations will need to take the quiz another way (e.g. extra time, large font, allowed to type, etc).

[RatGuy]

It seems like it would be easier to just have an attendance grade if you want to improve attendance. I also wonder if it would be easier to just have reading responses due on the CMS before class.

FWIW, attendance grades are against school policy for anything over the first-year level

[Caracal]

It seems like it would be easier to just have an attendance grade if you want to improve attendance. I also wonder if it would be easier to just have reading responses due on the CMS before class.

FWIW, attendance grades are against school policy for anything over the first-year level

It's always bizarre to me that administrators would make these kinds of rules. For one thing, if you just had a quiz every class then you would be effectively taking attendance. If the concern is about illness or disability accommodations, that can be managed in all kinds of ways. There's no reason everyone needs attendance grades, but it's weird to me that a school would just decide to yank a tool out of everyone's hands.

Regardless, could you just have short reading responses every couple of classes without announcing it? You could make it clear that these are an easy way for students to help their grade and that you're just looking for evidence that they have done the reading. If you grade those as 100 or 0, that's an easy way to see how well students are understanding the readings without pop quizzes. The trick is, that you really would need to be quite generous in the grading and just give them a check as long as they show some sign of having done some of the reading even if they misunderstood it.

[mythbuster]

Are your Pop Quizzes always the same format? That could really help to reduce anxiety. One way would be to have a set of standard questions that focus on the big picture. Let students know that 3 out of 6 of the standard questions will be the quiz each time. That way they know what to read for al least as a starting point.
   The downside I have seen to these type of pop quizzes is the student assumption that no two will be back to back. So the class after one, attendance massively drops. The solution to thta is to have a quiz at the start of every class- but that may not be logistically palatable by you or the students.

[RatGuy]

Thanks for the replies everyone! They've been helpful.

To respond to a few of the comments:

• I tell them I drop the lowest grade; or, more accurately, I keep the highest ten (for ease in averaging). This semester we had 14 of them--about one a week--so the lowest four grades are dropped. The median average is around 87%.
• Each quiz is the same format -- multiple choice, with one or two short answer questions about terms. I normally don't have a full 10 questions. If there are six questions, and a student misses all of them, they'd still score a 40. I tell them that's better than missing and scoring a zero.
• I also do short writing assignments -- four, over the course of the term -- which as a whole counts as our "secondary writing assignment." I'm required to give them an essay as well, and I use the short assignments as practice for the kind of analytical moves they'll do in the essay. It's both writing scaffolding and reinforcing concepts from reading.

So overall, I feel like the negative responses I get are from students who think quizzes are "punishment." The reality is their overall grades aren't harmed by them, except for the ghost students

[Caracal]

So overall, I feel like the negative responses I get are from students who think quizzes are "punishment." The reality is their overall grades aren't harmed by them, except for the ghost students

Sometimes, what matters is how students feel about something, not the reality. I mean, ok, you can't make everyone happy and there will always be some things some students don't like, and sometimes students will be stressed out by something that they just need to deal with because it's an essential element of the course. Sometimes, though, the thing isn't essential and you you just have to ask if its worth it to have a bunch of grumpy students. I've had things like this several times where students just hate something I'm doing and it doesn't really make any sense to me and I'm always tempted to be stubborn, but when I've just gone ahead and changed the thing that drives them nuts, I haven't regretted it.

There are just times where things feel differently to students. You're looking at this with a birds eye view and you know that the students who are actually showing up are doing fine on these quizzes and it's just free points for anyone who did the reading. But you aren't the one who wanders in to class on a random Monday and suddenly has to do something that you weren't planning to do that feels  stressful. Ok, I wouldn't have been stressed by it as a student, not in any class where I could read things with a narrative structure, but if it was Spanish or Math, it would definitely make me anxious and you've definitely got a lot of students who feel that way about their humanities class they have to take for a requirement. You don't want your students coming to class every day with a pit in their stomach, you want them to engage with your class, not dread it. It doesn't really matter if the dread is rational or not.

[AvidReader]

I've also taught humanities courses with reading quizzes. I never put mine on the syllabus. I sometimes said things like, "Hey! Congratulations on showing up on time! Let's have a quick quiz so you can get points for coming and I can see where we should start in our discssion."

I also think the presentation matters. Since these are quizzes you are printing out that look hard and formal, could you have students respond on notebook paper and hand their responses to you? Can you discuss some of their answers so they think of them as discussion prompts rather than formal quizzes?

AR.

[Caracal]

I've also taught humanities courses with reading quizzes. I never put mine on the syllabus. I sometimes said things like, "Hey! Congratulations on showing up on time! Let's have a quick quiz so you can get points for coming and I can see where we should start in our discssion."

I also think the presentation matters. Since these are quizzes you are printing out that look hard and formal, could you have students respond on notebook paper and hand their responses to you? Can you discuss some of their answers so they think of them as discussion prompts rather than formal quizzes?

AR.

You could take it one step further and just ask very broad open ended questions that anyone who did the readings will have no problem with. I tell students on out of class reading responses that if they don't understand the prompt, they can just tell me what they are confused about, and as long as it's clear they've done the reading, I'll give them full credit.

[Puget]

So overall, I feel like the negative responses I get are from students who think quizzes are "punishment." The reality is their overall grades aren't harmed by them, except for the ghost students

I think part of what students don't like is the surprise and also sometimes feeling like they are being "tricked" into coming to class because of the chance there will be a quiz/in class assignment that day. As weird as it may seem, they may actually prefer a quiz/assignment *every* class.

That's what I found in any case-- I teach a large class that previously I used to teach as a traditional lecture course and about once every 2 weeks I had them do an unannounced in-class assignment. Even though these were easy points, some students resented that I was "tricking" them into coming to all the classes in case there was an assignment (why yes, how did you guess my nefarious plan to make you learn?). Then I flipped the class, so now they have in person class just once a week rather than twice (lectures are asynchronous online), but they when they are in class there is *always* an in class assignment-- that's mainly what we do in class (plus structured discussion). They actually seem to prefer it even though there are twice as many assignments. I also drop their lowest 2.

[artalot]

I'm with Caracal - if the students are anxious or resentful they're focusing on that rather than on learning.
What about minute papers? You can have the students answer a quick prompt at the beginning of class to get them thinking about the reading; they usually take about 5 minutes. Similar thing works for small groups, you just need to allow more time. And don't really grade them - make them 3 points each. You did it = 3, you kinda did it = 2, you showed up and had a pulse = 1. Easier to grade, low stakes. Drop more of them - 3-5.
Or reading quizzes posted to the CMS - you can let them take them open notes without a timer and they'll feel much less pressure. If they've done the reading they're more likely to show up to class, and to show up prepared to discuss.
I've used both - it seems like minute papers freak them out. We have a high strung student population. I've moved to CMS quizzes in intro courses; I use minute papers or quick reading responses due just before class in upper levels.