Multimodal take-home exams in online teaching and beyond: constructive and professional alignment in teacher education

Abstract

The authors propose an alternative to in-class exams (ICEs) based on the higher-order levels of Bloom’s taxonomy as well as both constructive and professional alignment. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors were faced with restructuring both their teaching and assessment. The paper argues that take-home exams (THEs) tailored to the necessities of individual courses are advantageous to an online learning environment in comparison to an ICE and the pitfalls that accompany it, such as online proctoring, lower-level assessment, and the relative lack of constructive/professional alignment. In addition, THEs provide instructors with the possibility to utilize a variety of multimodal material that authentically reflect learner-centered assessment. The authors will continue to implement THEs post-pandemically as they allow for incorporating activities and strategies that are useful to students in their teaching careers.