Context

BIOMG 3310 informs how students think about health, well-being, and diseases. Students take this course after general and organic chemistry, which many students find challenging. In response, Linda Nicholson, wants BIOMG 3310 to be a safe and supportive space where students can learn complex topics. One way she accomplishes this goal is through peer-led study groups. Twenty undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) lead large, weekly study groups¹ that support collaborative learning and provide an inclusive learning environment for students. The groups cover concepts from the previous week and guide collaborative problem-solving. While these study groups are optional, they are often transformative for the students who choose to attend. The discussions deepen students' understanding of the course material, helping them find their solid ground based on their learning, their experience, and the perspective they bring to the class. 

Assessments

Nicholson's assessment strategy prioritizes being clear and transparent with her students, so they know where and how to find important information. She also aligns her assessments with the content directly covered in the lectures. In this way, she carefully avoids making assumptions about what students already know, or should know—assumptions that can negatively bias her assessment and impact their learning. 

Nicholson designs her assessments to motivate students and help them learn how to connect concepts, appropriately apply them to solve problems, identify knowledge gaps, and get help from their peers and the teaching team (Table 1).  Weekly quizzes are administered on Wednesdays during the first 15 minutes of class. These quizzes cover the content and examples from the previous week's classes and help students keep up with the course material, which is covered at a fast pace, and practice quantitative reasoning skills. Students who need extra time can take the quiz at an alternate time and location. While there are no makeup quizzes, students can drop four quiz grades, which gives them some flexibility based on their life circumstances (e.g., if they are sick and unable to make it to class). After class, the same quiz is offered online, on Canvas, so students can improve their quiz scores after revising the concepts from class. 

• Without online (Canvas) quiz
  • Quiz grade = In-class quiz score  
• With online (Canvas) quiz
  • Quiz grade = (0.8) In-class score + (0.2) Canvas quiz score

The online version of the quiz is open-book, and collaboration is encouraged. Students have two days to complete the quiz with unlimited attempts. Nicholson tailors her lectures based on students' performance on the quizzes.

The cumulative exams test students' ability to retain the course content and connect different concepts. Students are also exposed to some synthesis questions in the weekly quizzes, so they have multiple chances to practice these concepts. The out-of-class assessments allow students to practice, collaborate with peers, apply concepts to real-world situations, and develop molecular graphics software skills. Students' final grades are calculated using criterion-based grading (Table 1), so their grades are independent of the average class performance. Criterion-based grading encourages collaborative learning, as students are not competing for grades.

Challenges

Students have unlimited attempts at the online version of the weekly quiz, and some are "gaming" the system, repeating the quiz until they get 100% to improve their overall score. This approach defeats the purpose of the online quiz and undermines their learning. Likewise, these assessment strategies have not been as successful as Nicholson would like in supporting student well-being. Also, despite all the practice opportunities, students still find the midterm and final exams stressful, at the cost of self-care and sleep. They are also often burned out from the demands of BIOMG 3301, other challenging courses, and participating in extracurricular activities.

It takes considerable effort for the instructor to manage the course logistics and create the weekly quizzes. For example, the in-person and online versions of the weekly quizzes must be accessible to students who need additional time accommodations. Nicholson is also responsible for training the UTAs and graduate TAs throughout the semester. The graduate TAs handle grading and run the weekly review sessions, which removes some of the administrative load from the instructor. 

Reflection and Future Directions

Here are some changes that Nicholson is planning to make in the future:

• Limit online quiz attempts.
• Try a two-stage exam for the preliminary exam, where students first take the exam individually and then work on the same exam in assigned groups to encourage collaborative learning and give students a chance to improve their grades.
• Implement more active learning in the class by taking advantage of the rapport developed in the study groups.
• Increasing the number of preliminary exams.
• Improving her classroom management system to minimize emails from students.

¹ Over 60% of the students in BIOMG 3301 participate in the study groups.
 

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