In-Class Assessment Strategies

What a great turnout at last week’s (11/6/25) Teaching Matters morning coffee! Sixteen colleagues from across academic divisions and offices joined us to wrestle with the challenges–new and old–of designing and implementing effective in-class assessments. We talked through some of our  reasons for using in-class assessments, including long-term pedagogical practices and more recent AI-related concerns. In the process, colleagues shared a variety of approaches that are working in their classrooms, including:
  • Fostering student commitment by helping them understand the “why” behind assessments through conversation and clear prompt design;
  • Having students write weekly “muddy waters” cards about what’s still confusing at the end of the week, and using those to kick off the following week;
  • Using scaffolded oral assessments (e.g.,

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